Duration

Over the weekend, responding to a call from my friend, Gopal Bhargava, I was in Kanpur to conduct training for JCI Kanpur Industrial and also for the IMA, Ophthalmologists’ Society and students from seven schools. This Monday Muse is triggered by the experience of travelling to Lucknow airport to board my return flight scheduled to depart at 8am.

The organisers told me that it would take just 75 minutes to travel the distance from Kanpur to Lucknow. They suggested that even if I were to leave Kanpur by 6am I would reach by 7.15am. When I insisted that I wanted to leave at 5am, they told me they knew better. But I remained firm and eventually reached the airport by 7.30am... just in time to rush through the formalities!

Interestingly, they did not err in their estimated duration to cover the distance. So what went wrong? The taxi reported late. A brief stop for tea turned time consuming. All this delay was compounded by traffic that steadily increased after 6am. The vehicle and the driver were slow. The distance remained the same but the duration of the journey had doubled.

So often we presume that the duration to cover a particular distance is the same. We ignore that variables may occur in the start-off or the quality of the vehicle or the skill of the driver or the traffic on the road or delays on the way or even breakdowns! All this factors need to be considered while planning a new journey across the same distance that we may have travelled before.

Experience can condition our minds to look at things in a rash way. The journey will be better if we accept that duration is affected by changing variables in the attitude and approach of the traveller as well as external issues that surface on the way. Time depends on the journey, not on distance. The play ‘Zoo Story’ has a pertinent line: ‘you have to go a long way to cover a short distance’.

The same distance at different times will see duration differ
we must BE BETTER at visioning the variables that may occur…

- Pravin K. Sabnis

On Lucknow-Mumbai flight.

Eklavya

The legend of Eklavya is found in the epic Mahabharat. Eklavya seeks to study archery under the coaching of Dronacharya, mentor of the princes of Hastinapura. When Eklavya approaches Drona, he is refused due to his humble status of being a tribal. However, Eklavya, full of determination, creates a statue of Drona and starts practising in front of it.

One day, during a hunting trip, Drona’s students come across Eklavya and they realise his skill is superior to that of Arjun, Drona's favourite and most accomplished student. An incensed Drona asks Eklavya to gift his right thumb as ‘guru-dakshina’ (a offering of gratitude to a teacher). Eklavya heeds to the demand without hesitation.

Drona's demand, for Eklavya's thumb and his initial refusal to accept him as a student, was indeed mean and unfair. However, it is pertinent to focus on the attitude and approach of Eklavya to learning. Though his teacher refuses to teach, he does not give up on his education and development in his desired skill. He shows what focused pursuit of learning can do.

A good teacher can facilitate learning, but not without a good student. Hence, the teacher must empower the passion of learning in the student. For once the passion is kindled; the learner can cross all restrictions. The story of Eklavya shows that the traits of desire, dedication, discipline and determination are the ones that help learners to be better at connecting to their potential.

It is said so well that ‘lessons are meant to be learnt, not taught’. And that is the real lesson. As learners, we must realise that the onus lies on us to learn from our teacher. And as a teacher, we must accept that even if put in our best efforts, it is to the credit of the student to rise to greater levels of competency.

To BE BETTER at nurturing potential, aim at the right spot…

The Eklavya story tells how to learn without being taught!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

New Role

Veteran actor, Pran passed away on Friday. However he will continue to live in the minds and hearts of his fans. His USP was his ability to look different in each role. Besides using varied wigs, make-up makeovers and changed costumes, he would assume distinct mannerisms for each character. Indeed, he brought freshness to each new role!

It was this very attitude that ensured Pran’s success as an important player in the Hindi film industry. Many stars fell by the wayside as they chose to replay the same approach in every role. Even the greatest of them all, Amitabh Bachan had to reinvent himself and discover new roles. But Pran had greater consistency over five decades, as he kept reinventing himself in every new role.

Pran’s model is not just for reel life, but also for real life. We are cast in multiple roles that arise from the different situations that surround us. While personal values must remain consistent (like it was with Pran); our response to each new role will be better if we infuse a fresh approach that is suited to the needs and wants of that particular role.

One of the fallouts of success is the reluctance to innovate. The common argument is ‘why give up on what works’. However, each new role comes with its own new challenges. And even if doesn’t, it is only by approaching afresh, that we will discover newer possibilities in achieving greater goals. When the role is new, our response has to be a freshly reinvented one.

To truly BE BETTER in each new role...

Reinvent the approach to the goal!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

Not Supermen

In the aftermath of the Uttarkand tragedy, many e-Indians have saluted the rescue efforts of the Army. Some have put up photographs of how the Army assisted people who were afraid to cross a steel rope 'Burma Bridge' across a river, because of the roaring water underneath. In the absence of wooden planks the soldiers positioned their bodies stretched across the steel ropes, so that stranded people could cross over. 

Very touching indeed... for indeed the photograph is a ‘touched-up’ one. In fact, it has been around for a few years, initially claiming to depict the gallantry of Japanese soldiers. It perpetuates the myth of supermen and ignores the actual hard work put by the rescuers.

What is it that makes otherwise discerning minds to turn gullible and believe the fake propaganda that projects the imagery of ‘supermen’. As a result they ignore the true tale of the ordinary persons involved. Ironically, it is the ill-paid soldier or the local (living a tough life) who rise up to the challenge; and the bloated imagery of ‘being supermen’ ignores their real efforts.

The problem in believing in the unreal is to relinquish ownership of our responsibilities in other situations! Extraordinary efforts do not need ‘supermen’. They need simple persons involved in earnest efforts. As trekkers during landslides and flash floods, we have been oft helped by locals as well as the uniformed persons, who are just being good men!

We need to be better at acknowledging that they do exactly what they are supposed to as human beings: to be sincere and responsible. We need to mould ourselves in a similar attitude... so that when we find ourselves in a comparable challenge, we must become those who do things not because we can, but because we will...

The world is saved by the simple, not super men...
May we BE BETTER at sincerity in every way we can!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India

Introspect

Introspection is one knowledge process that stipulates personal initiative rather than be a diagnosis for somebody else. The results of introspection are liberating in terms of the widened perspective of understanding the situation and our role-connection to that very situation.

The word is derived from the Latin term ‘introspicere’ which literally means to look inside. It is the self-observation of our own reasoning and behaviour. It involves reflection on the impact of our thoughts and actions on others as well as us. However, introspection that only remains inward looking tends to be selfish. We must utilise its value as a valid tool for the development of options and find effective results in practice for goal-oriented functional challenges

Imagine a traveller on a journey. Introspection would include looking at the path covered (past), the location as of now (the present) and the road ahead (the future). Introspection will involve looking at our original intentions, our actions and the impact of them on ourselves, our thinking and also on the situation that surrounds us.

The most important thing to remember is that introspection is a personal exercise as well as a personal initiative. And hence it involves taking ownership as well as responsibility of what we are and where we find ourselves. Rather than insist that others do it, it would be better if we involved in introspection ourselves!

It is so easy to indulge in sterile extrospection
To BE BETTER, we must involve in introspection…

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

Your Call!

A popular urban legend records an interesting exchange of messages on a foggy night at sea:

“We are on a collision course, advise you to change course 20 degrees."

"Advisable for you to change course 20 degrees."

“I'm a Captain, change course 20 degrees."

"I'm a seaman second class. You better change course 20 degrees."

“I'm a battleship. Change course 20 degrees. Now!"

"I'm a lighthouse. Your Call!"

Although the story is fictional, the analogy holds a valuable lesson in the unimportance of self-importance. Many of us are like the Captain... full of our own overestimated ego. It is said that road rage in a driver is proportionate to the size, speed and cost of the vehicle that he is driving. The same applies to every case of the 'infallibility' of power.

Surely, understanding eludes us due to the looming prejudice that comes from being self-centred around one’s situation and position. We do not bother to explore possibilities to understand the circumstances. The story demonstrates the intractability of some listeners and the overwhelming need for flexibility. A columnist Russ Linden wrote of the lesson: ‘We're blind unless we know who we're talking to. While it is the captain's ship, it's most definitely not his ocean’

We must be better at understanding the significance of situational responsiveness by escaping the clutches of prejudice born of undue self-indulgence. We need to pay heed to the other side and be open-minded to consider possibilities in the predicament. For it is in those very possibilities that we shall discover the potential of clarity. After all, it is our call!

BE BETTER at escaping the self-importance fall

Pay heed to the other side, for it is your call!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

FAULTY KEYS

Milind Manerkar shared his experience on ‘facebook’ of his predicament when he could not log into his notebook. It kept providing a hint to his password. He tried various passwords but kept getting rejected. He consulted experts who suggested a tedious option: to format and reload the machine. Internet gave an easier solution: to restore its factory settings by pressing Alt + F10.

When Milind got the notebook working, he discovered the real problem: two keys were not functioning and had to be forcefully pressed to operate. All his efforts seemed needless when he realised that it was the keys that were faulty. He shared his learning that ‘problems in life are small, we make them big!’

So often, we imagine our problems to be bigger than they actually are. We are overwhelmed by our own imagination and we seek unnecessary solutions. However it would be better to identify the seemingly insignificant factors that may have caused the problem. And so often we will find that the fault lies at hand, and so does the solution.

The wise choice to make is to make out the smaller reasons behind large difficulties. We need to be better at recognizing the keys that need correction. Our keys are the tools we use: attitude, communication, listening, observing, systems, practices, response, etc. If the fault lies in our ‘key’ we will find ourselves locked out of sustainable solutions.

It is pertinent to note that in the case of the notebook, once we have spotted the faulty key, we can either change it or change the way we use it! Similarly, in life too, when we spot ‘faulty keys’ we must either unlearn the faulty tools or change the method that we use. But first, we must spot the ‘faulty keys’!

The solution can be simple, if we can only see...

the way to BE BETTER at spotting the faulty key!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.