Mansur Ali Khan ‘Tiger’ – The Nawab of Pataudi

Like most cricket-lovers of 60s, I also would follow the exploits of Tiger Pataudi on the cricket grounds through radio commentaries and reports in newspapers or sports magazines, wonder at his marvels of cricketing genius and would enjoy Team India’s triumphs under his captainship.

I also had one occasion to actually watch him play during one of the Duleep trophy matches around 1966/67 at Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmadabad.

We would celebrate the elations in discovery of our hidden strength to be able to confront the Goliaths through the performances of Team India under his captainship..

Nawab of Pataudi was our teenage fantasy hero.

However, I would recall his exploits much later in my life too, when I had grown senior enough to my young colleagues, while quoting him during the training sessions on diverse management topics like Team Building, Delegation, Importance of process in achieving desired results, Leadership Qualities.

I would like to place my these instances of remembrances to keep the candles of great wisdom alight in memory of the versatile personality of Mansur Ali Khan, the Nawab of Pataudi.

A] No challenge is intimidating enough to throw up the towel without a decent fight:

In a surprise turn of events, he was asked to take over the captainship of Team India in West Indies under extremely traumatic circumstances. But at no time during that fateful series anyone could see an iota of hesitant approach in this young lad, as can normally be expected when such an onerous responsibility is thrust on such inexperienced shoulders.

B] Leader is First among equals.

At no time during that fateful series of West Indies or for several years thereafter , no one remembered that Pataudi was the youngest ever Captain and that all most all other of his colleagues were much older and experienced than him in that team. Similarly, in the later years, his junior colleagues never felt the gap on account of his stalwart status.

He was so much of a team player, that if his word would be the last one in major team decisions, he was also the principal source of inspiration.

C] A good leader would build a high-performance team irrespective of who chose the team members.

Pataudi always used to say the Captain of India’s cricket team should have strength to accept what others consider as the best among the cricket players in the country. He also believed that it is not possible for a world class spinner to be a world class fielder or vice versa.

He was thus master at devising strategies where sum of strengths of each player was always far more than the sum of weaknesses of these players.

D] Positive Attitude, Always

He never presented ‘reasons’ like poor pitch, mismanaged tour schedules, bane of poor fielding for the defeats.

He would also never deploy defensive tactics for saving the match from a loss or use negative tactics to pullout a draw. For him the spirit and cause of cricket were supreme than the records of wins or losses or draws.

E] Believe in your own abilities and expressively invest confidence in your team members

His all [symbols of ] expression – the way he would lead the Team onto the fielding each session, his field settings, his changes of bowling etc. – always manifested his strong confidence in the ability of Team India to take on the real or perceived might of the opponents.

He is also known to hold the view that he would not offer such basic advice to a player, who has risen to the  level of national test team, as to how to bowl or field or bat under a given situation. He would certainly convey his analysis of the situation and his own strategy to handle it and then leave the execution in the hands of the player concerned, until the strategy warranted a change.

The practice of Theory of Delegation could have tremendously benefitted if the model case studies would have been developed with the help of such execution best-practices.

F] Aim high and face the challenges head-on.

If setting attacking umbrella field settings or devising three spinner innovation  were his messages of not settling with a low aim, his own swash-buckling aggressive over-the-field stroke-play when a couple quick wickets were lost was his own way to lead with example in the face of the challenge.

He would probably accept little less but certainly not little lower.

G] Follow the discipline, demanded by job-on-hand.

Even though he was from a relatively wealthy family background or have had metropolitan and western upbringing, he was known to follow a disciplined routine during the matches.

He was also known not to hesitate in bringing up his erring illustrious colleagues in the matters of professional discipline.

His ‘tiger’-like fielding prowess was iconic not only among his own team members but among the members of opponent teams.

I would pay my very respectful homage to Mansur Ali Khan ‘Tiger’, the Nawab of PATAUDI not only as cricketer or captain par excellence but also as an unsung beacon of best-practices of team management and leadership.

What to remember ! What to forget!!

વાગોળવા જેવી પળો ઘણી હોય છે તો પણ વાગોળવાની વૃત્તિ કદાચ ઉત્તેજનાપાત્ર નથી!
ભૂલવા સરખી ક્ષણો પણ ઓછી નથી, અને તે જેટલી વહેલી અને વિચાર-સમજપૂર્વક ભૂલી જવાય તેટલો જ ફાયદો છે!
— સંદર્ભઃ “પુરુષોત્તમ ગણેશ માવળંકર – સન્નિષ્ઠ જીવન – લેખકઃ રજની વ્યાસ”

After 823 yrs, 5 weekends this July

This July will be a little different. In fact, it is going to be a July that comes once in 823 years and bring cheer to those who look forward to weekends. July 2011 will have five Fridays, five Saturdays and five Sundays and numerologists and astrologers say such a July is rare, as rare as once in 823 years.

But, despite being rare, it may not have too much of a numerological significance for people, says numerologist Sanjay Jumani. “It will just be fun to have more weekends as the month will have five Saturdays, five Sundays and of course five Fridays,” he pointed out. Astrologer Ajay Bhambi, too, said it was a mathematical rarity in the calendar but people should not assume there was any astrological significance.

When pointed out that Feng Shui experts predict the month lucky for people to earn money, Jumani said, “In fact this year, as I had predicted, has been expensive right from the beginning. It will be expensive even till the end. There is nothing special to more Sundays, Saturdays and Fridays. Just enjoy the weekends.”

Greenstone Lobo, another astrologer, also agreed that having more weekends does not mean any astrological affect as it is not related to planetary movement. But Lobo said the month will be good for people in India after three months of inflation, social and political upheavals. “Over the last three months venus and mars were in conjunction. This planetary phase has now ended on June 30 last month and hence going to be a very good month after a long gap,” he added, pointing out that weekends would be more enjoyable.
—- Chittaranjan Tembhekar, TNN | Jul 3, 2011, 01.05am IST

But I Still Know

“A dedicated sculptor creates beautiful idol to adorn a temple’s tall gopuram. At the final stage, he notices a very minor flaw in his work. At once he puts the piece aside and starts working on a fresh piece of the stone. His friend comments: “Who is going to notice this flaw in the idol, whwn it is installed at that height!” The sculptor replies:
“But I still Know.”

That is the measure of true, deep-down, punishingly strict honesty. The fact – that “I know”.

Indeed the most difficult time to be honest is when nobody is watching or when nobody would know any better. True test of character is when you are naked with yourself and you compromise under any circumstances.

This path is exacting and tests many.

Extracted from
“Would you like to walk like Sachin?”
In
“O-zone” by Vinita Dawra Nagia
-TimesLife! – Sunday Times, April 3, 2011.

The Objective of the Organization and effect of availibility of resources

My this piece of writing is provoked by the article by Shri Jagdish Bhagwati – “The ‘real’ truth behind Yunus’s Grameen Story” – in ToI, Delhi, 27th March’11.
One very pertinent observation in the article is about success of an NGO, in spite of full control of some kind of statutory regulatory mechanism. The second is about success without any ‘foreign’ aid.
My personal opinion, obviously not that of one who has detailed knowledge of inside working of any NGO, is that unless an NGO is under the control of persons ‘truly dedicated’ to the cause [ alternative hypothesis – run by (so called) professionals], the NGO commences to lose its original direction of purpose sooner in its life time.
In any case, when the organization has rather abundance of resources to achieve its objectivesyaa, the organizations have been observed to lose its long-term competitive survival efficiency and effectiveness.
Extravagant [non-value] operating styles, practices bordering to unethical standards, persona-dominated decision-making practices etc. – all the non-desirables for a long-term (original)-purpose-driven, whether Government or Private Commercial or Non-Profit NGO, set in, leading to the ultimate ruin of the original organization. And, along with that the original philanthropic or business purpose.
What is left out to the society is – both financially and spiritually – corrupt hollow shell, which you are neither not able to throw out nor able to live with.
Without any aspersion to individuals or the organizations or the circumstances, some examples, relevant to the core of my present opinion, come up to mind are: Naranda Bachao Andolan, Sadvichar Parivar, Osho Movement.
Whilst on the subject, one more area which comes up in my continuing thought process is the pitched battles of environmental concerns versus local-natural-resource-based-industrialization. Certainly, both sides have, mostly and many times, valid points of views. It is also becomes a matter of Hobson’s choice – industry can come there only because that is where the natural resource is and if it does, environmental balance as well as very livelihood of the local human and natural populace is going to be adversely affected.
Fortunately, Shri Jayram Ramesh,the present Union Minister in charge of the Ministry concerned with these aspects has all credentials to put The Right Practice of Evaluation in place, for the present as well as for the posterity.
I wish the current generation will be able to write a chapter in the history of industrialization of India which will stand the scrutiny of the future standards.

The Power of Unintentional effect(s)

Last week I happened to read a book by Shri R. Gpalkrishnan – ‘……. The bonsai manager’.
The book has very succinctly narrated the impact of ‘inintentional effect’. The author has very aptly taken up the ‘poltico-constitutional implementation strategy’ of propagating Hindi as National Language a very effective example to explain this concept. Since the implementation strategy, probably, did not take into account all factors, the ill-effect on Southern States was so grave that nation had reached the brink of being permanently divided. But same Hindi was lapped through the medium of Hindi movies, since the prime motive was not that of promoting Hindi. But, the popularity of Hindi cinema, as much as those of the regional cinema [ a product which was competing, but was not appearing to or being promoted to compete, did, in fact, make Hindi , if not popular, acceptable as a language. This was the power of inintentional effect.
Incidentally, I saw a Hindi movie today, which had the similar potential power to create a permanent lasting impression – hence sparking the process of much necessary overhaul of socio-judiciary reforms.
In movie ‘Jaago – Directed by Mehul Kapoor , 2004 – a simply stated, but very high potential inintetional impact – has been placed through an underworld king – ‘The [common] man will not have trust in the Judiciary till the justice is not delivered in as much time as it takes to commit the crime’.
Unfortunately, the movie has not met with the commercial success. Hence, alas, such a powerful dialogue is also lost in layers of anonymity, unlike the getting the famous glory of Gabbar Singh dialogue of Sholay or Raj Kumar dialogues of Waqt or Pakeezah.
With this, I now recall some of the very strong message Hindi movies – Raj Kapoor’s Shri 420, Aawara, Jaagte Raho, Jis Desh Mein Ganga Baheti Hai, No One Killed Jessica, Dhoop, Amitabh starrer Paa etc.
Imagine the scenario where individuals and organizations engaged in the larger public-welfare fields of social, political, judicial, economic reforms use such powerful inintentional media to further their [planned / intentional ] cause of creating a lsting impression on the minds of the target audience with a view to create either a permanent change or to ignite a spark of the change process!

Plagiarism or Creative Plagiarism or ‘Inspired’ Creation

Almost all music directors of ‘golden era’ of Hindi Film Music have been, to a varying degree, accused of plagiarizing! Whether, by design or by chance, their either ‘best’ or very popular compositions are being claimed to be [so called] ‘plagiarized’.

The factual truths have always been in the hotly debated grey zone of “Plagiarism or Creative Plagiarism or ‘Inspired’ Creation”.

Many articles have been written on the subject in the past, quite a few of them have been to enlighten the subject quite effectively, both in terms of the typical tendencies of the respective music director or exact classification of the specific composition into one of the three tags.

I will add to the great debate, after having listened to the posting   ‘Songs_in_Raag_Bhairavi_with_Lata_ji_and_Shankar_Jaikishen’  on Youtube.

This video has assembled first the original tune – by legendary Arab chanteuse Aasmahan [1018-1944], which was so creatively adapted to ‘Ghar Aaya mera pardesi’ of Awara (1951), but set to our classic Bhairavi. The video clip then adds more Bhairavi gems of the duo – ‘Kisi ne apana – Patita (1953), ‘Main Piya Teri – Basant Bahar (1956), title song of ‘Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai’ (1960), Khushiyon Ke Chand muskarayere – Mayur Pankh (1954).

If this be Plagiarism or Creative Plagiarism or ‘Inspired’ Creation, who cares!