On Manna Dey’s 100th Birth Anniversary, a Look Back at His Journey – ANIRUDHA BHATTACHARJEE and BALAJI VITTAL – Satyajit Ray, in an article discussing the limitations of Hindi film music, had mentioned that listeners would be “more shocked than surprised if they were made to hear a voice outside a coveted set of six singers”. Maybe six was just an empirical number he had in mind, but throughout his career, Manna certainly was not one of the six when the requirement was singing for the lead actor. He was always the seventh, in the role of a specialist.
Manna Dey Diary – On Manna Dey’s birth centenary, a diary about the legendary singer by Ranjan Das Gupta
Fifty years of Hindi alternative cinema– Uday Bhatia, Jai Arjun Singh – In 1969, three films signaled the start of Hindi-language Parallel Cinema. To mark the half-century, the article has collated a selection of 50 films, one for each of the last 50 years, which are notably influential, obscure or under-appreciated., from the arthouse, experimental, indie, Parallel and Middle Cinema movements
The sounds of Parallel Cinema – Salil Tripathi – Music and sound design played a huge part in the alternative Hindi cinema of the 1970s – Directors turned to composers like Vijay Raghav Rao, Vanraj Bhatia and Rajat Dholakia for innovative soundscapes…Songs allowed for playful innovations. In filming the delightful song Paanch Lakh Ki Gadi, Saeed Mirza used an extended long shot in Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyoon Aata Hai (1980), as Naseeruddin Shah and other motor mechanics tinkered with an expensive jalopy. The song is filmed in a single shot, as if paying homage to Hitchcock, whose Rope (1948) was filmed to seem as if it was a single shot.
The varied aesthetics of the Indian New Wave – Omar Ahmed– Parallel Cinema directors didn’t adhere to any one particular style….Instead, they used everything from neorealism to agitprop to avant-garde to tell their stories
In 2017, Azmi tweeted a photograph from a Cannes visit in 1976—of her and Smita Patil in saris, draped two different ways.
Continuing with the homage to Shamshad Begum, Shamshad sings with Mangeshkar sisters remembers duets and triads, e.g. Khushiyan Na Manaae Kyon Hum.. Kismat Hamare Saath Hai….– Khidaki (1948) – with Lata Mangeshkar and Mohantara Talpade – C Ramchandra – PL Santoshi
The Unrivaled Poet Kaifi Azmi- Part I lists his songs composed by Khayyam, Hemant Kumar and Madan Mohan and Part II lists his songs with all other composers. I have taken one illustrative song from each one –
Sara Mora Kajra Chhudaya- Do Dil (1965) – Mohammad Rafi & Aarti Mukherji / Music – Hemant Kumar
Baithe Hai Rehguzar Par – 40 Days (1959) – Asha Bhosle / Music – Babul
The premiere of Andaz in 1949. Photo courtesy Nazir Hoosein and Karl Bhote
Romancing the Reel: Vijay Bhatt – Legendary director-producer Vijay Bhatt, the founder of Prakash Pictures, a film production company and Prakash Studios in Mumbai, had launched some of the most illustrious names in Hindi film industry. SMM Ausaja pays tribute to this illustrious filmmaker with a journey through his life and works on his birth anniversary, embellished with a collection of rare pictures courtesy Osianama.
“Shamma Pe Aake O Parwane Jal Jal” – Heera Sawant – Heera Sawant was not only an excellent dancer but also an adept actress. She made her debut in Hindi films in 1940s, made her emphatic presence felt in around 120 films over two decades, produced a few films and with the changing times bid adieu to the arc lights of the film world.
Chorus Songs in the Hindi Films of Yore – In the first part of her three-part dissertation on chorus songs in the films of yore, the guest author, Shalan Lal covered the first decade of the 1930s. The second part, dealing with the second decade of the 1940s, and chorus songs from this era, gives a good insight into the main trends during this period and style of music.
Doris Day sings Que Sera Sera in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956).
Chinna Pennana Pothile, Aaravalli (1957)
Que Sera Sera in the Telugu film Thodu Needa (1965).
On ‘Main Shayar toh Nahin: The Book of Hindi Film Lyricists’ by Ravishankar presents Hindi-film lyrics and lyricists from the 1930s to the present day. Main Shayar Toh Nahin isn’t a book you will read for the quality of the writing, or for a cleanly structured approach: it makes random leaps, there are patches of repetition. But by the time you reach the last page, you feel better-educated about a subject that had been something of a mystery to most of
Chalate Hi Jaana Chalate Hi Jaana Jahan Tak Aaj Ye Raah Chale – Usne Kaha Tha (1961) – With Manna Dey – Salil Chaudhary – Shailendra
I earnestly solicit your inputs for further broad-basing our cache for the content for our carnival of blogs on the Golden Era of Hindi film music.
Disclaimer: This monthly series of posts is my best-effort-based compilation of posts on Hindi film songs that I normally visit regularly. As I record my sincere thanks to all the original creators of these posts, any other posts that I have nor covered herein shows my lack of awareness of existence of such posts and is by no means any disrespect to their work. The copyrights to the posts, images and video clips remain the properties of the original creators.
We have grouped here male singers who can be considered to have, for all practical purposes, faded out in the ‘50s, but had fairly noteworthy presence in the ‘40s.
Solo Songs of G M Durrani
The status of G M Durrani can be judged from the fact that Mohammad Rafi considered him as his ideal in the early days.
Yeh To Bata Mere Khuda, Loot Gaya Mera Pyar Kyon – Nargis – Husnlal Bhagatram – Qamar Jalalabadi
Woh Nazaron Mein Samaye Jaa rahe Hai – Saathi – Gulshan Sufi – Wali Sahab
Armaan Bhi To Na Is Dil=e-Nakaam-Se Nikle – Sassi Punnu – Pt Govind Ram Ishwar Chandra Kapoor
Zabt Kar Bahar=e-Khuda Shiqvae Bedaad Na Kar – – Sassi Punnu – Pt Govind Ram Ishwar Chandra Kapoor
I have not been able to locate the soft link to this song:
Kis Musibat Se Basar Ham Shab-e-Gam Karate Hai – Sassi Punnu – Pt Govind Ram Ishwar Chandra Kapoor
Solo Songs of Ashok Kumar
1946 can be considered as the transition year when Ashok Kumar was consciusly making way for the genuine playback singers to sing his own-screen songs.
Jagamag Hai Aasmaan… Dol Rahi Hai Naiya – Shikari – S D Burman-
Laj Bhare In Nainan Mein Sakhi – Uttara Abhimanyu – S N Tripathi –
We will continue with Solo Songs of Vintage Era Male Singers for 1946 and take up solo songs of Surendra, and of the ‘other’ singers of the vintage era.
We will now take up second of the nine disruptive technologies of Industry 4.0 – Cloud Computing.
Cloud Computing[1] is the delivery of computing services—servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, intelligence and more—over the Internet (“the cloud”) to offer faster innovation, flexible resources and economies of scale.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) will deliver pre-installed and configured hardware or software through a virtualized interface.
Platform as a Service (PaaS) offer a computing platform and solution stack as a service.
Software as a Service (SaaS) provide fully functionally web-based applications on demand to customers. The applications are mainly targeted at business users and can include web conferencing, ERP, CRM, email, time management, project tracking among others.
Recovery as a Service (RaaS) helps companies to replace their backup, archiving, disaster recovery and business continuity solutions in a single, integrated platform. RaaS providers protect and can help companies recover entire data centers, servers (OS, applications, configuration and data), and data (files and databases).
Cloud computing as the ideal data storage resource for proliferation and research within the interconnectivity of Industry 4.0.[3]
There are ten critical ways cloud computing will drive manufacturing growth[4]–
Quality is no longer siloed. – Cloud platforms and applications make it possible for the quality strategies to be synchronized all locations with real-time data.
Manufacturing cycle times are accelerated. Cloud-based execution models enable the seamless handover of data to enterprise applications and to achieve real-time visibility, supply chain integration, and increased operational flexibility.
Insights into overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) get stronger. Cloud platforms enable a system of record that includes OEE to the machinery and tool level, providing insights into which areas are performing well and which need to improve.
Automating compliance and reporting saves valuable time. Cloud-based compliance applications that are capable of producing federal device history records (DHRs) remove the burden of associates having to manually catalog and report records to prepare industry and government filings.
Real-time tracking and traceability become easier to achieve. – Cloud-based applications handle tracking and traceability and can scale across supplier networks save many manufacturers from the high, unpredictable expenses of a product recall by catching product quality problems early.
APIs let help scale manufacturing strategies faster than ever. – Serving as the glue between diverse applications, databases, and systems, APIs create real-time integration links to enable more efficient data sharing, collaboration, and greater transaction accuracy and efficiency.
Cloud-based systems enable higher supply chain performance. Cloud-based inventory management system (IMS) and ERP systems over time generate data sets that tend to show patterns, making it possible to anticipate shifts in demand.
Order cycle times and rework are reduced. Automating pricing, quoting and customer approval workflows using a cloud-based application helps to reduce order cycle times and improve quality.
Integrating teams’ functions increases new product introduction success. Cloud-based applications are integrating product development, engineering, supply chain management, and production planning teams on a single platform and on a global scale to reach higher product quality levels.
Perfect order performance is tracked across multiple production centers for the first time. The more complex the product lines and configuration options —including build-to-order, configure-to-order and engineer-to-order workflows — the more challenging it is to attain a high, perfect order level. Greater analytics and insights gained from real-time integration of cloud-based ERP solutions, which serve as the system of record, and monitoring help complex manufacturers attained higher perfect order levels over time.
The following diagram puts across the cloud computing adoption model:
We will now turn to our regular sections:
For the present episode we have picked up article, Ruined by Success, by Les Trachtman on Innovation and Entrepreneurship column of Management Matters Network …. The important lesson for entrepreneurs is not to neglect your own success. Celebrate heartily! But afterwards, be prepared to strap on your shoulder pads for the battles to come from even unlikely competitors.
We now watch ASQ TV, wherein we look at a few recent videos:
Basic Tools, New Applications – The experts advise not to overlook the basic tools and fundamental approaches when taking on new and complex problems.
Effective 21st Century Quality Leadership – Mike Turner, Managing Partner, Oakland Consulting, discusses the business challenges of the 21st century, and how quality professionals should respond in order to meet them.
Strategic Financial Metrics for Quality – Loran Cox, Director, Global Business Solutions, One Tower, discusses the financial metrics involved in successful project planning.
Jim L. Smith’s Jim’s Gems posting for April 2019 is:
Quality is Evolutionary – The pursuit of quality is a never-ending process. – Demonstrated by Dr. Joseph M. Juran’s Spiral of Progress, implementing quality is an evolutionary process. It cannot, therefore, be left to chance; it must be taught. Humans learn through repetition so it must be repeatedly reinforced.
Taking Responsibility – Taking responsibility for your life gives you the freedom to take risks and make mistakes, and that’s a great feeling. Of course, it also means you need to be prepared to take the consequences of your risks and mistakes…If you don’t accept responsibility for your life, you are likely to just shrug off your failures thinking you have nothing to learn from them. But if you don’t take full responsibility for your life, you will never be happy, because no one can make you truly happy but you…If you take responsibility for your life and your decisions and your actions, then you have the power to take active control of your life.
Positivity – Many people, when they encounter a stumbling block or an obstacle in their path (personal or professional), become discouraged and quit. However, successful people learn how to turn those stumbling blocks into steppingstones on their path forward to achieve their goals…Positivity is the practice of being positive or at least having an optimistic attitude. Positive thinking is when we consciously cultivate positivity in our minds so that we think we can get through anything. And it’s been scientifically proven to improve your work life, physical and mental health, and relationships.
I look forward to receive your inputs / suggestions that can further enrich our discussions on the subject of Digitalization in the Quality Management
Note: The images depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images.
For the year it would be interesting enough to classify the male solo songs under three broad categories
Solo Songs of Golden Era Male Singers – the singers who are easily associated with the Golden Era of HFM
Solo Songs of Vintage Era Male Singers – the singers who are primarily associated with Vintage Era of HFM, and
Solo Songs of K L Saigal, who is a class in himself.
We will first listen to –
Solo Songs of Golden Era Male Singers.
1946 is the year whereat most of the Golden Era male singers were still considered new enough. As a result, one would not expect very strong presence to their share.
Solo Songs of Mohammed Rafi
We have a good mix here, in terms of the songs quite well-known and songs not-so-well-known.
Mohammed Rafi’s Popular Songs
As may be expected of a post-’60 HFM follower like me, the song appearing herein are composed by the music directors who had fairly strong presence in the ‘50s and ‘60s.
Ab Wo Hamare Ho Gaye, Iqrara Karin Ya Na Karein – Safar – C Ramchandra – G S Nepali
Kah Ke Bhi Na Aaye Tum, Ab Chuupane Lage Taare – Safar – C Ramchandra – G S Nepali
Mohammed Rafi’s other songs,
These are the songs which could not measure up on the same level of popularity.
It is a good opportunity to revisit these songs after almost two and half years and refresh the memories of the first ever segment of years 1944-1946 of the series Mohammad Rafi’s Solo Song(s) From The FIRST Film With The Music Director.
Todo Todo Todo Dil Ke Taar Tootein To Sangeet Lutaein – Amar Raj – Feroze Nizami – Ishwar Chandra Kapoor
Pran Tyag Kar Tune Diwani, Jag Mein Bana Di Amar – Amar Raj – Feroze Nizami – Ishwar Chandra Kapoor
Rahe To Kaise Rahe Dil Pe Ikhtiyaar Mujhe – Roon No. 9 – Rasheed Are – Nakhshab Jarachavi
Data Ji Tera Bhed Na Paya – Sona Chandi – Tufail Farooqui – Shamim
Solo Songs of Mukesh
We have been able to locate only two solos here. I have listened to both the songs for the first time. Mukesh sound raw enough, but not under KL Saigal influence in both the songs.
Kiyo Na Pyar…Na Himmat Haar, Kabhi Inkar Kabhi Iqarar – Rajputani – Bulo C Rani- Pandit Indra
O..Prani Kya Soche Kya Ho Gaya – Chehra – M A Mukhtar – Ishwar Chandra Kapoor
Solo Songs of Manna Dey
Quantitatively, Manna Dey has the strongest presence. However, he remains a niche player in the films where his songs have an appearance, which is going to type cast in the years to come.
Allah Khata Kya Hai Garibon Ki Bata De – Dil – recorded as P. Dey – Jafar Khursheed
Dil Churane Ke Liye Koi AA Raha Hai– Door Chalein – recorded as P Dey – K C Dey
Nayano Ke Baadal Baras Rahe, Ham Tumhare Daras Ko Taras Rahe – Insaaf – H P Das – D N Madhok
Ye Jagat Hai Matlab Ka Dera Kyon Kaheta Hai Mera Mera – Rupa – Govind Ram
Ram Naam Se Sabake Man Ke Ho Jata Hai Shudhdha Vichar – Valimiki – Shankar Rao Vyas – Mahesh Gupta, M A
The songs for which I have not been able to locate the soft links:
O Dharati, Kyon Rooth Gai Maan Dharati – Dharati – Bulo C Rani – Pandit Indra
Gaon Se Chal Doo O Bharat Ka Sanwariya – Shravan Kuamar – Bulo C Rani – Wali Saheb
Solo Songs of Other Male Singers of Golden Era
Ummid Bhara Panchhi, Ya Khoj Raha Sajani – Eigt Days – S D Burman – S D burman – G S Nepali
We will listen to solo songs of G M Durrani and Ashok Kumar within the category of Male Songs of Vintage Era Singers.
Manna Dey, a.k.a. Prabodh Chandra Dey, (1 May, 1919 – 24 October, 2013) had established himself as the playback singer with his own distinct style in the very initial years of his career in the ‘40s. The second half of ‘40s – from 1947 to 1950 – further consolidated that image. This was also the period when other male and female playback singers who were to play dominant roles in the subsequent decades of 50’ and ‘60s were also simultaneously visible in the sky of HFM. ‘40s laid the foundation that established that range of Manna Dey’s vocal prowess would become a standard that these and the those who were to follow would always aspire to reach.
However, for the records, it needs to be recorded that it was his that versatility that led the music directors to offer him songs that were difficult. The fact that he made these difficult compositions sound simple enough probably never created ‘THE’ hero’s voice.
For the purpose historical records, the present four years of 1947 to 1950 have given us Manna Dey’s maiden duets with Meena Kapoor (Chaltey Chaltey, 1947), Shamshad Begum (School Girl, 1949), Lata Mangeshkar (Narsinh Avtar, 1949), and Geeta Dutt (Ram Vivah, 1949). Even as he used to assist S D Burman from the initial days of the music director, Manna Dey recorded his first song under S D Burman’s baton in Mashaal (1950).
Suno Suno He Nar Nari – Age Badho (1947) – Sudhir Phadake – Amar Varma
This is a song wherein Manna Dey provides the backstage voice for the song narrative of the play being enacted on the stage.
Asides:
There is another song, a duet – Sawan Ki Ghatao Dheere Dheere Aana– which had become very popular then and is till well-remembered. The records clearly mention Manna Dey as the male singer, but the listeners seem to be equally convinced that it is Rafi.
Apne Hi Rang Mein Rang Daro – Geet Gobind (1947) with Rajkumari – Gyan Dutt – Pandit Indra
Gyan Dutt has used Manna Dey’s voice as the lead male voice for the film. The songs of the film had become quite popular too. This very unique opportunity seems to have dysfunctionally cast Maana Dey as the singer for classical based songs.
Ham Tere Hai Hamko Na Thukarana O Bharat Ke Bhagwan Chale Aana– Ham Bhi Insaan Hai (1948) – H P Das, Manna Dey – G S Nepali
In the very initial years of Dev Anand, Manna Dey seems to be have been used as his playback voice.
Wo Ghar Ghar Ke Diye Bujhakar Bane Hue Dhanwan – Ham Bhi Insaan Hai (1948)– H P Das, Manna Dey – G S Nepali
In Part 1, Manna Dey sings in the lead, with an unknown female artist and chorus in the company.
In Part 2, Manna Dey play perfect foil to the silhouette pensive mood of the song.
Jai Shiv Shankar Gauri Shankar – Jai Hanumaan (1948) – Bulo C Rani Pandit Indra
No wonder Manna Dey gets type cast for such songs.
Humne Tumhare Ishq Mein Marke Dikha Diya – Gajre (1948) – Anil Biswas – G S Nepali
With this romantic song, Anil Biswas certainly adds to variety of songs that Manna Dey could sing so comfortably. This is the only male song in the films, so we may presume that it will have been filmed on Motilal, the main lead actor.
The song is a pensively romantic mood song, which may have been filmed as a background song.
Duniya To Ye Kaheti Hai Insan Kahan Hai – Lahore (1949) – Shyam Sundar Rajiner Krishna
Manna Dey gets one more background song. However, the song is quite difficult one .
Lapat Ke Pat Pahaney Bikral – Narsinh Avtar (1949) – with Lata Mangeshkar and chorus – Vasant Desai –
The song is a dance song but set to a difficult composition. The song is a maiden Manna Dey – Lata Mangeshkar duet, which is set to give us 102 more.
Dhanya Dhanya Hai Awadhpuri – Ram Vivah (1949) – with Geeta Roy (Dutt) – Shankar Rao Vyas – Moti M A
This song goes down the records as the maiden Manna Dey and Geeta Roy (Dutt) duet. They have 26 more duets to their account.
Duniya Ke Logo Lo Himmat Se Kaam – Mashaal (1950 – with chorus – S D Burman – Pradeepji
Manna Dey gets one more opportunity to manifest his tonal range, but for a ‘beggar’ song, composed by S D Burman to the Bengali folk ‘baul’ tune.
Upar Gagan Vishal Neeche Gahar Paatal – Mashaal (1950) – S D Burman – Pradeepji
Mashaal helped S D Burman much needed toe-space to anchor his career in the HFM. Even as he had used Arun Kumar Mukherjee as playback to the male lead, Ashok Kumar, it this song that earned the credit of being the game-changer. Manna Dey again is at his tonal variety best, even as the song is filmed more as a background song.
I have not been able to locates soft copies /links to the following songs:
Aaj Bhar Aayi Bhar Aayi Hai – Chalte Chalte (1947) – with Meena Kapoor – Khemchand Prakash – Lalchand Basant Peshwari – This Manna Dey’s maiden duet with Meena Kapoor. Unfortunately, we do not have a soft link of this song on the net.
Chhod De Likhna, Lekh Bidhata – Kaun Hamara (1947) – Bulo C Rani – Pandit Indra
To end the post with Mohammad Rafi’s song, which would necessarily be a duet with Manna Dey, we shall have to move away for the present scope of 1947-1950 period.
Le Lo Babu Pudiya Ye Jaadu Waali Pudiya – Madan Manjari (1961) – Sardar Malik – Hasrat Jaipuri
Even as this being an audio version, we do not have access to know as to who lip sings for the two singers, we can enjoy both the singers matching notes to notes to mood of the song.
We will continue remembering Unforgettable Songs that seem to Fading away from our Memories every second Sunday of the month……..
Disclaimer: All images are sourced from net. All copyrights of the respective image remain with the original owner of the image.
The journey of Best Songs for The Year @ SoY started rolling backwards from the initial phase of the Golden Era and has now reached well into the beginning of the end of Vintage Era. The journey has crossed the milestones @ 1955, 1953, 1951, 1950, 19491948 and 1947. We now move on the next milestone ‘Best songs of 1946: And the winners are?’
As very explicitly noted in the very beginning of the SoY overview article, we are now deep into the HFM era where many more songs known to unknown and even more songs that are unknown at level of HFGK or YT fans of the vintage era songs. In the overview article, SoY notes that the year has a record figure of 153 films, having a total of around 1270 songs that are identifiable, of which almost nothing other than the initial few words of the song is known for 740 songs. That should make the journey of Micro Analysis of Songs for 1946 as much challenging task as the previous vintage era years journeys have been interesting.
We begin our journey of Micro View of the Best Songs of 1946 @SoY with this clear context. As is our established practice, we will present the excerpts from SoY overview article:
Musical landmarks:
There are several films which shine as bight stars in a dark sky of the many unknown unknowns, like Naushad’s Anmol Ghadi and Shahjehan, C Ramchandra’s Safar, Anil Biswas’s Milan, Ghulam Haider’s Shama,
Hansraj Bahal had his first independent assignment as music director with the film Pujari.
List Of Memorable Songs, at the first glance, appears to a very truncated list, with only 76 songs. However, in a year where more than 50% of the known songs are not traceable, the number seems to merit an appreciation of an extensive work undertaken in the compilation. We have relisted these songs Memorable Songs of 1946, by adding the relevant link to YT file.
For the year under review, Special songs also cover the songs which open a path of discovery on their own well as they have thir own personality. In this case too, I have brought these songs on the same page with Memorable Songs of 1946.
The stage is now set to commence our journey into the Micro View of the Songs of 1946. As the List of Memorable Songs and Special Songs have covered most of the well-known songs for the year, we will restrict our micro-view to in-depth listening of not-so-well-known songs. We will then combine our impressions of these songs with that we already have for the well-known ones to present our point of view in so far as
Best male playback singer
Best female playback singer
Best duets
Best music director
are concerned for the year 1946.
All the posts that will appear on this subject here have been tagged as Songs of 1946 @ SoY.
The 6th episode has taken up the oft-discussed topic of ‘measurement’, wherein in the Part 1, What Can Be Measured, dealt with the definitive need for not ‘only measurement’, but for ‘also measurement’ too and Part 2 dealt with mutual importance and dependence of Objectives versus Subjective Reality, whereas Part 3 evaluates ‘What is Your Worth?’ from these measurements perspectives.
In the episode 8, Devdutt Pattnaik has picked up a very interesting subject of Family Feuds, beginning with Three pairs of brothers in segment 1, then linking up it with Self and Self-Image in segment 2 and then further wish. Loyalty and Dharma in segment 3.
The 9th episode put forward the views on the subject of Discrimination with the help of gender discrimination, creation of hierarchy and caste – the death of Brahmin. The discussion leads us to conclude that discriminating hierarchy in the human society is reflection of the animal instinct of the human being, Indian mythology strongly advocates actions to overcome such animal instincts, even by resorting to extreme measures.
The final episode explores Indianness. Devdutt Pattanaik believes that Indian ideas need to be seen through a fresh post-post-modern lens. The post-post-modern lens looks at things in context appreciating the subjective realities of Indians and recognizing it as being different from those of other people. It is of value in some situations but not in all. Segment 1 took up the subject of destiny v/s desire and segment 2 dealt with the question of Juagaad being good or bad.
Business Sutra |10. 3| Raas Leela: The Perfect Organization
First, we will explore a few sources of western management literature wherein an attempt is made to define / describe ‘an ideal organization’.
HBR, in article, Creating the best workplace on earth’, by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones calla ‘the organization of your dreams’ as one where individual differences are nurtured; information is not suppressed or spun; the company adds value to employees, rather than merely extracting it from them; the organization stands for something meaningful; the work itself is intrinsically rewarding; and there are no stupid rules. The ideal organization makes explicit efforts to transcend the dominant currents in its culture.
Most of the other literature talks on similar lines. Obviously, there would be many views, with as many shades of gray, on this subject.
Ravindranath Thakur has also spoken of a similar feeling in his poem:
With this, we are now ready to move on to what Devdutt Patanaik has to say with regards to The Perfect Organization, which he has prefixed with a metaphor of Raas- Leela, from the perspective of Indian mythology in Segment 3 of the episode 10, Finale, The Indian Way of Doing Business
As we’re talking about this difference between Indian creativity, the jugaad and the Western Systems’ predictability, Kishore Biyani quite beautifully articulates the difference in belief and behavior in the west and the East. Let us listen to him –
What is the model one should adopt? I think we need to create a blend wherein processes and systems can be driven out of the Western Way but the software side of dealing with human beings, with consumers, with organizational behavior, I think we need an Indian model of learning development, and probably leadership.
This brings us back to the very first question that we started this series with -i.e. is there an Indian way of doing business, a way that blends the Western and the Eastern way of doing things, the way that blends the process and the people focus.
To understand this, we have to go back into a little bit of history of management science. 300 years ago a great revolution took place in Europe. Until then Europe was controlled by the king, the monarchy and the church, the theocracy. Their will was the law. Then a whole bunch of people came and said that it can’t work like this, that an institution of church and Kings cannot just decide what is right and what is wrong. The right and wrong has to be defined by logic. This is where Voltaire came into the picture and the Renaissance took place. Then Hegel and Newton and the other scientists and thinkers came onto the center stage. New inventions took place, the Industrial Revolution took place. All these was based on reason. It was called the Age of Reason and the age of Industrial Revolution. Everything had to be logical, rational and real. The management science is a product of this churning, of that way of thinking. But somewhere along the line, we assumed that what came from this thought was universal, because it is logical
The problem comes now, when these ideas came to the East, be it China or India, they were imported and imposed. However, in the 1970s something very interesting happened. A whole set of thinkers emerged again who were called post-modern thinkers, who said that what we assumed to be logical is a function of culture. This is where I feel mythology has a lot to add to management. The management emerged from the desire for creating an objective reality which is absolute, perfect and independent of human beings. I am saying that that is one half of the brain – the left brain. One has to pay attention to the other half of the brain, the right brain, which has been ignored and rejected three hundred years ago. The right half of the brain which says that people are individuals and every individual has a subjective reality. Respect and appreciate that subjective reality, otherwise conflict will happen.
I have a final question to you in this season of this series of Business Sutra. Is there the embodiment of an organization anywhere in mythology? Does mythology talk about the perfect Organization, the perfect business, the perfect enterprise?
Yes, it does. Why does an organization exist? An organization exists because we can’t cope with the forest, the wild nature. The wild nature frightens us, we want to feel safe and secure. Therefore, the human beings created an organization. However, the problem with organizations is that an organizations is made up of domesticated people. We domesticate the wildest in an organization’s ways and means. However, we don’t like the domestication because we want to be ourselves, as we are born free and we want to live free lives. So we are trying to negotiate a path between the forest and the organization, between being wild and being domestic.
This is best represented by Krishna’s Raas Leela. What is the Raas-Leela? Raas-Leela is a dance which takes place in the forest – a place of fear. It takes place at night. It takes place outside the village, which means outside the organization. So, there is no organization there and yet everybody is participating in the Raas- Leela is completely unafraid. They are dancing and having a grand time.
In this perfect organization, they form a circle, which means there is an organization there and they are all in a circle – equidistant from the leader who treats them equally, each one feels special. Krishna in the center and these are the Gopis dancing around him in this wild forest, not afraid at all. There is no reason for them to be there They were bound by custom, law, systems, processes or obligations. They are there of their own free will and yet complying in creating this perfect circle. Nobody is coming in and disturbing the circle. In fact if one does so, then Krishna disappears. This is the fear.
So what are we saying if the forest is the marketplace can my leader be like Krishna, who gives me complete freedom to do what I want and yet I voluntarily aligning to the system. It means that where I do 100 percent, come on time and go on time, not because I am obliged by a contract but with passion from within, with devotion (Bhakti). That is the core of an influence to do it with integrity and with devotion not because Allah tells me to do so.
Can we achieve that? Well, that is the Promised Land of India.
So even if a ‘perfect’ organization provides every individual to seek his /her own way to align with the organization’s purpose and strategic direction. In real practice, there is bound to be variations of the approach of an individual, in the course of changing context of the organization. If we believe that wealth needs to be chased, the workplace becomes a rana-bhoomi—a battleground of investors, regulators, employers, employees, vendors, competitors and customers; if we believe that wealth needs to be attracted, the workplace becomes a ranga-bhoomi—a playground where everyone is happy. It is function of as is your belief, so is your behavior and so is your (way of doing) business – your own blend of objective reality with your oen subjective reality.
With this we end our segment-by-segment discussions on different aspects of Business Sutra, as told by Devdutt Pattanaik. We will formally conclude our present series in the next episode, wherein we will take peep at a few of the talks that Devdutt Pattnaik has had delivered after the publication of the book Business Sutra.
Note: The images used in this post are the irrevocable property of their respective creator. They have been taken up courtesy the internet, so as to illustrate the point under discussion.
The world is too small? or Is it? 