My little niece Prakriti and I share a special bond. I am her ‘other mom’ and she is my ‘baby’. Adulation and special bond mean she is my faithful shadow, and my little lamb whenever I am in Chennai. She follows me around, observing everything I say and do, keenly examining, and making mental notes on my clothes, jewellery, and, er……….. my footwear. It took me a while, and a…
Leadership
Pigs or chicken? Building commitment, not just interest, in the frontline
This story caught my attention long back, as the simplest illustration of ‘interested’ vs ‘committed’. A Pig and a Chicken are walking down the road. The Chicken says: “Hey Pig, I was thinking we should open a restaurant!” Pig replies: “Hm, maybe, what would we call it?” The Chicken responds: “How about ‘ham-n-eggs’?” The Pig thinks for a moment and says: “No thanks. I’d be committed, but you’d only be…
Spirituality and service silos – Lessons from Tirupati
A visit to the Tirupati, home of one of the richest gods, Balaji, is an experience that many million people consider one of the most important spiritual experiences of their life; not once, but many times in a lifetime; they plan in advance or start hunting around for someone to help ease the way in, they pray to the lord that he is kind enough to afford a reasonable…
What does leadership have to do with walking on fire?
I was a source of great amusement to my paediatrician. I would get a severe asthma attack every month, and in those days, the best solution to control it was to give the child an injection. And here was little Usha, who would start screaming from the moment he prepared the needle! ‘I haven’t even touched you Usha’ he would tell me. He just didn’t understand that the screaming and…
Choosing to be Birbal…………
Last weekend was spent with my little niece, so I had to dig into my long forgotten repertoire of stories. I narrated to her one of my favourites- Akbar and Birbal in ‘the jealous courtier’. The courtier complains to Akbar that he doesn’t give importance to anyone else’s suggestion and only heeds to Birbal. So the king sends Birbal, and the courtier to the road, to find out what the…