Day -127

Die Empty-Unleash your Best work Every day- is a  book with an unusual and novel theme.

• “Most of us live with the stubborn idea that we'll always have tomorrow. But sooner or later all of our tomorrows will run out. Each day that you postpone the hard work and succumb to the clutter that chokes creativity, discipline, and innovation will result in a net deficit to the world, to your company, and to yourself. 
• Die Empty is a tool for individuals and companies that aren't willing to put off their best work. Todd Henry explains the forces that keep people in stagnation and introduces a three-part process for tapping into your passion: 
• Excavate: Find the bedrock of your work to discover what drives you.
• Cultivate: Learn how to develop the curiosity, humility, and persistence that save you from getting stuck in ruts. 
• Resonate: Learn how your unique brilliance can inspire others. Henry shows how to find and sustain your passion and curiosity, even in tough times.” Thus goes a review about the book in the internet.

The author seems to stress the quote of Benjamin Franklin viz. “Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today”. Most do not contemplate an end to life now or later and rightly so.

·       ‘What is the greatest wonder?’ Lord Yamraj asks in the Mahabharata.

·       Yudhisthir replies, ‘Day after day countless people die. Yet the living wish to live forever”.

·       For such people even the title of the book will be frightening.

· But then we see countless people leaving this world untimely/unannounced due to diseases, accidents, plane crash, terrorism, wars and the list is endless.

Hence the author’s exhortation to one and all that the life should be led such that nothing is left to be done in one’s mind as far as possible. Easier said than done. 

• But an awareness of this thought will help one to do things at the right time and not postpone endlessly.
• More the things are postponed at office or in life, it will only create needless tension to self and others.
•  Hence the suggestion to do things immediately. Mahatma Gandhi’s Quote is extremely apt for this book- Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. 
• Such an outlook will avoid needless postponements, nay no postponement at all.

The book states about the need to use the available time and opportunity to do something relevant and worthwhile. As the time available to each one is limited, the aim should be to make the best of the given time and opportunity. But many falls into different types of traps and the vision is not reached and the goals are not attempted. Hence the quote of Churchill seems apt. Success is not final, failure is not fatal, and it is the courage to continue that counts.

All in all the book gives ideas and need to lead an active and full life such that one will not have any regret at the end.

• ·         Die empty, a title though not palatable to many, conveys a deeper meaning to the reader that will be both revolutionary and welcome.

·          In conclusion, the author of the book has these sage words to offer-“Ultimately, your life will be measured by what you gave, not what your received.”

·          If only everyone realizes this sooner than later. Highly recommended for reading.

Be happy. Be safe.

ॐ

10 30AM 

Day - 126

 “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." - Benjamin Franklin

I will be covering a few books in the coming blogs and  am happy to start with a masterpiece for all time to come.

 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People-Steven R. Covey

“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, considered one of the most inspiring and impactful books ever written, has captivated readers for over30 years. It has transformed the lives of Presidents and CEOs, educators and parents-in short, millions for people of all ages and occupations have used its step-by step pathway to adapt to change and to take advantage of the opportunities that change create”- thus goes the citation on the book.

Those who have read the book and are familiar with the life and time of Steven Covey will vouch for the veracity of the above statement as he was the mentor for top notch leaders across the globe. He played a tremendous role in bringing about changes in the way leaders think and act and also on nurturing leadership skills.

The 7 Habits (of highly effective people)  are quite simple to look at , but  have very deep meaning and implications .

1) Be pro-active

2) Begin with the end in mind

3) Put the first things first

4 )Think Win-Win

5) Seek first to understand

6) Synergise

7) Sharpen the Saw

Seminars and workshops were held in our country too over the years focusing on these 7 habits  and even today this book comes in  for discussion, whenever leadership skills are involved.

·       The million dollar question still remains as to how many  have actually gone  through the same.

·        Such a thought is natural, if one takes a look into the management practices in different types of  organizations/institutions  and even pubic life.

·        Though this question is of academic interest , the moot point is that those who have missed the book have lost  some  excellent  opportunity to learn something very valuable in life and career.

·        Hence the suggestion to all aspiring leaders to go through the book at the earliest opportunity and to current leaders to have a re-look into the principles covered therein for improving their leadership acumen and impact in  the years ahead .

·       ( Many may claim that they know Ramayan, Mahabharatha or Gita—the moot question is how much they  really know?)

• ·       The  7 Habits will surely transform, if they are put to disciplined use.
•  No short cut exists in leadership development.
•  Effort is needed, sincerity is needed, dedication is needed, which Steven Covey always stressed in this book and others.

Readers are encouraged to go into the  book for more details. Suffice to stress on the last Habit a little more.

 Sharpen the Saw may be familiar to all. 

• Generally, this is linked with wood cutting. The wood cutter spends  considerable  time in sharpening the Saw, Axe , Sickle as the case may be . 
• The sharper the blade , the easier it will cut the object. Similarly with leaders and others, more the practice, more  will be the expertise/ability.  
• More the study, more will be ability to tackle the question paper at an examination. 
• All these are well known, yet many want to become  national/ organisational leaders without the mandatory education, learning, training and effort.

For such, the book is a reminder and a guide too. Abraham Lincoln  once stated-“ If I had six hours to cut down a tree, I’d spend the first four sharpening the saw”.

 Acquiring appropriate  knowledge ,skill  and attitude is inevitable for eventual success.( As a long time Faculty I will  stress this point again and again, ad infinitum!) For many in the past, the book under reference has been an eye-opener in their leadership quest. Highly recommended for reading and imbibing for leadership growth and development of self and others.

 Be happy. Be safe.

ॐ

9  AM 

Day -125

आनृशंस्यं  क्षमा सत्यं अहिंसा दम आर्जवः  |
प्रीतिः  प्रसादो  माधुर्यं मार्दवं च  यमा  दश   ||
 Not being cruel, forgiveness, speaking the truth,  non-violence,
self restraint,  honesty and straightforwardness,  love towards all,
clearness of thought and style,  feeling of tenderness, and kindness,these are the 10 virtues prescribed by scriptures for due observance.( Subhashita)

Kindness is taught to one and all  from childhood , especially in schools. Yet over the years, even educated people became very rude and crude, if we go by History and current happenings. Otherwise a Nirbhaya / Tandoor ( Delhi) case would not have happened in a "Dharmic" country like India ( and how many more indeed?)

Be that the case, I happen to see an animation video film- stating that it had won the Oscar award. The small clip, of 2.30 minutes,  is highly informative, meaningful, thought provoking and above all touching. Wish such cases  often  happen  in our country also.

The video briefly is .... 

• A young woman offers a seat to an old man, in a long  distance train, who stated that he is travelling on a no-seat ticket. The girl also replied that she is also on similar status. 
• The old man gratefully accepts the seat shown  and after a few hours, reminds the girl to sit as she has been standing for long. But she assures that she is ok and has to complete only 5 more hours.
•  At that time the ticket collector comes and check tickets and notices that the girl has offered her reserved seat to the old man. He was touched by this noble and kind gesture and offered her a vacant seat in the next compartment.
•  The girl accepts his offer and starts moving slowly , when the  most extra-ordinary thing was noticed. 
• She reached for her crutches from  the rack above and thereafter started moving forward very slowly. 
• This sight startled the TC and a few co- passengers. End of video.

This does not require an added explanation. Even a boy can understand the implications of such actions. Then why grown up misses the same? That was an extra-ordinary gesture by the handicapped woman al beit in a cartoon film. 

ü  Having travelled in Bus, Train, Metro enough in this country, the author has mixed experiences. 

ü  Now being a senior citizen, I had occasions to request for a seat to very young people whenever felt tired during the journeys. 

ü  Many offered   their seats with a disdainful look and gesture, but nevertheless offered. God bless them.

ü   Some  questions prop up in the mind-

·          Did our education  system go wrong?

·          How our society has become so insensitive to fellow beings?

ü                              (How many films even depicted this —SARANSH/ Baghban for example).

·          Who taught such behaviour? Where did they pick up?

 I started this segment with a story from Bhagavat Purana- blog 118.  In the last 7 blogs I cited many Gurus who have shaped my official life. To that I will add  now a very Very Important guru - the ubiquitous mobile. 

• Today, strange it may sound, many don’t want to be disturbed at all.
• The body language one can sense through  the digital gadget is obviously loud and clear- leave me alone/why are you bothering me? 
• Technology–coupled with the pandemic-achieved solitude/isolation that all other earlier efforts failed !
• Related point is the customer treatment in a digital era. This video  will give insights from banking sector. https://youtu.be/X7gGlRg35Lg
• Video is  well received and highly appreciated  by many, hence cited here.

So Etiquettes, Graceful behaviour etc. may remain Grand Topics for classroom discussions only in  time to come like wild animals in  Zoos or dummy animals in showrooms! We need more practitioners to start/demonstrate a trend of graceful behaviour at office, public and at home( see ending below).

In passing one can say that when we see around most inhuman, insensitive, shameful  and uncivil  actions  , how a society will  become more---

•  Sensitive/
• Civilised/
• Cultured/
• Compassionate/
•  Kind ? 

I remember reading a novel - 

• Where love has gone by Harold Robbins, some 40 plus years back. 
• Here the modified question is  -Where Compassion,  Etiquettes, Humanity--- have  almost  vanished ?

Two  recent cases are cited  from Mumbai.

• At a ST bus stand a teenage girl was seen waiting/sitting on a bench. One youth was hanging around talking on his mobile. This girl took out her purse saw some thing and puts it back to her bag kept nearby. Then she started chatting on her mobile. It was an open bus stand. The youth slowly, like a Tiger approaching the prey, moved behind her seat and Lo vanished with the bad. When the girl reached to touch the bag, she got the current… then video showed her moving frantically here and there….
• A Branch Manager of a Private sector Bank went to his former Bank branch with an intention to rob at 8 PM or so, along with an accomplice. In the process he stabbed two   former lady colleagues - one of them died on the spot .He tried to decamp with cash and jewellery but was caught by public. What one can say, if that is the culture of  an educated / well employed  person?
• Indeed  very sad even to read or write....... even pen refuses to move-read key board...

BEING  THE AUTHOR OF A BOOK ON LIVING/LEAVING GRACEFULLY (2008), LET ME LEAVE THIS  NOT -SO-HAPPY-TOPIC ON A HIGHLY POSITIVE NOTE.

• ONCE RATAN TATA STATED THAT Dr MANMOHAN SINGH IS AN EPITOME OF HUMILITY, CIVILITY AND FORBEARANCE, WHICH I FONDLY HIGHLIGHTED IN MANY OF MY LECTURES.
•  MAY SUCH QUALITIES TRIUMPH IN FUTURE IN OUR BELOVED MOTHERLAND. 
• LET US BE OPTIMISTIC AND EVER HOPEFUL.
• उम्मीद पर दुनिया कायम हैं.

Be happy. Be safe.

ॐ

5 30AM 

Day 124

 My Employers-7

The assignment in Saraswat Co-operative Bank Ltd. was my last official engagement. My association with this Bank started since 1979 , when I took a  loan from them for educational purpose. That made me a Tiny shareholder of the Bank too.

Mr. S K Banerjee, the former MD  and current Board member of the Bank was on the Board/council of IIBF for long  and we knew each other for over a decade.  I joined the Bank as the Principal at their Staff Learning Centre, Vashi in 2015. This was a very satisfying innings of my life, more so it came at the  fag end of my official life. 

Bank has a  highly state- of- the- art Staff Learning Centre, which is a great pride for a co-operative bank. 

• During my period a large number of senior bankers had come as guest faculty there. 
• I was proud to show them around the training facility. 
• All of them invariably expressed great wonder about the foresight and investment made by the Bank in the training field.

That  goes to the credit of  the great visionaries of the Bank, especially Late Ekanath Thakur sir , who had once worked in SBI. He tried to take the Bank to the highest echelons of banking  experience in all sense of the word.

•  In a matter of less than  20 years, the bank scaled unparalleled growth in the co-operative sector. 
• Today it is the Number One co-operative bank in the country giving a run even to banks in the private and other sectors too.
• Bank has won many awards from bodies like Forbes International, BCSBI and IBA
•  Bank is in the forefront in Technology /Digital Banking and has bagged the Best Technology Bank for over 5 years in succession. 
•  It is indeed a pleasure to use the Mobile Banking app of SB.
• The Bank is  a fore runner in CSR activities too. Even  this year, the Bank   donated a Crore of Rupees to the flood victims in the Konkan region.

The Bank has kept high benchmarks ahead. 

• With the able support of over 4000 Value based, Trained, Committed, Determined, Dedicated  and  Customer friendly staff, backed by a Highly Professional Board of Directors, those visions are sure to be fulfilled in the time to come.

• MAY THE BANK  REACH ITS CHERISHED VISION OF TOTAL BUSINESS OF RS. 1,00,000 CRORE EARLY, BUT POSITIVELY BY 2025 WHICH IS THE ARDENT DESIRE, WISH AND PRAYER OF THIS TINY SHAREHOLDER.

I had opportunities to interact with the top management including Board members of the Bank. All those experiences have left lasting good memories.

•  Being part of the L&D wing of a state- of- the- art bank, aspiring to be the best was a challenging and learning experience. 
• I feel lucky that I could get such an opportunity at the end of my official innings.
•  I feel indebted to SB  thus for very many reasons.
• Suffice to say that the five years in the Bank was memorable and will be etched in the mind forever .

Thus ends my journey in the work front. 47 plus years have been quite long ,eventful and with numerous opportunities and potentials.

·    Majority of my career time was spent in areas that I really loved viz. faculty, academics, publication, staff learning centre and staff colleges.

·     Such opportunities are indeed rare in banking- to work in areas  one  really likes. 

 I thank God Almighty for those golden moments and especially Ma Saraswati for Her apar krupa-  benign blessings-always which made all these possible.

Be happy. Be safe.

ॐ

6 AM 

Day 123

My Employers-6

IIBF is the organization, where I had the longest innings (23 years).

• Prior to joining,  I was already a member of the Institute and had passed CAIIB examination way back in 1975 in single and consecutive attempts, which was indeed a very rare achievement in those days. Strangely, two papers of Part II examination were leaked during that period and we all had to take the re-examination!

 At a  comparatively young age of 39 years, I became the Director of Studies of the Institute (which was later christened as Director of Academic Affairs). 

• Being a national level academic/examination body, this job opened up numerous unforeseen opportunities, that may not have normally come in other organizations where I worked before.
• The two decades plus period was full of activities, too numerous to list at this time.  
• I will focus on the persons who helped in shaping my career.

Here the name of late Prof. R D Pandya comes on  top. When I met him, he was past 60 years of age and we had some two years of work association. What a wonderful period that was? 

• Being a Professor, he had the gift of the gab and a great flair for speaking. That impressed me at the outset, being a faculty at heart myself. 
• Then comes his human qualities. He was a thorough gentlemen, treated the staff in a fatherly fashion. He always showed a soft corner to the staff. 
• People say, he literally built up IIBF almost from the scratch. That may be true also. I had seen IIB when I was appearing for CAIIB in 1975. IIBF name came around 2004 or so.
• Subsequently, when I saw IIBF in 1992. I could not believe its transition from a small office on the second floor of SBI building at Horniman Circle to the sprawling offices at Cuffe parade and Maker Towers. 
• Pandya Saab was the Chief Secretary of the Institute for over 17 years during which this transition mainly took place then.
• Professor had great ability for drafting and dictation, seeing that I could develop those skills subsequently. 
• He would never scold for a mistake in drafting, instead he will dictate the letter afresh and sends across the final letter. Looking at that, one can see the changes and learn. What a way to teach young minds!
• He believed in helping people always. His father- in- law was a leading specialist. He helped many persons to meet his father free of charge.( On one occasion, when my father was ill, Pandyasaab  helped me to take him to the specialist in his office car!). 
• He gave numerous opportunities for his staff to travel abroad to attend conferences that helped them to build their vision immensely. 
• He also organized mega seminars like International Banking Summer School (IBSS) for the first time in India… there are numerous achievements to his credit.

He had given opportunities to me to attend  World Conference of Banking Institutes held in Bali-1993 and Taiwan-1994 along with him, that also gave occasions to pass through Singapore and Hong Kong.  

The  Institute had organised the same conference  earlier in 1992 at Goa in a very grand scale ,under the dynamic leadership of Prof. Pandyasaab., which I had the privilege to attend. Those  prestigious conferences had definitely helped in building my vision during  those early years in the Institute.

• Last but not the least, he introduced me to very many senior bankers.
•  As he was lavish in praising and supporting, I could get noticed by some of the seniors- with whom I could develop lasting friendship later on.
•  This gesture of Pandya Saab helped me so much that three of them wrote encouraging forewords to my books subsequently!
• All credits go to the loving care and support shown by Pandya Saab.

After his retirement in 1995 till his demise  in 2018 or so, I had very good and long association with him. He was residing at Baroda. Invariably we used to talk every week at least once.

•  He always encouraged me academically and spiritually and reviewed four of my books in the IBA bulletin. 
• In conferences, he showed keen interest to listen to me with encouraging  comments either before or after my talk.
• What else a youngster can ask from a superior either in office or outside!
• RIP- Pandya Saab.

Another  great professional I wish to acknowledge here is Mr. Y H Malegam, CA. He was the council member of IIBF for nearly 25 years and during that period he was also the Chairman of Committee on Education and Training of the Institute for over two decades. In that period, I had numerous opportunities to interact with him and see closely the way the meetings were conducted by him and decisions were arrived at. Three great learnings, among others, stand out for me-

1) Time consciousness/punctuality. No meetings ever started late during that period. In case, if there is some delay, he will start with an open apology to all members present.

2) The precision with which decisions/directions were given and drafting changes made, if any.

3) No criticism/ unwanted remark of any sort was ever heard from him.

The discussions were always to the point and if he has to leave a little early, he will mention that in advance and at that time, he will close the meeting. 

• Thank you  Malegam Sir for helping  to know Professionalism of the highest order. 

All these are not taught in any IIMs or training colleges . One has to see in practice to learn and imbibe.

 I consider  myself fortunate to have that golden opportunity in IIBF to meet  many senior bankers, academicians and professionals from India and abroad. 

• IIBF managing Council consists of some 20 plus heads of various banking organisations as also  Director/s of Academic bodies working in the country. Hence I had the unique opportunity to see some 140 CMDs  of different banks as also the RBI Governor and Deputy Governors ( in earlier years)  at close quarters as Council members over a period of 23 years.
• Further I could see/interact with very many dignitaries from Government, Private sector, bureaucracy and public sector  who came and delivered either the PTM L or RK Talwar memorial lectures. All these are truly priceless learning experiences.

A  couple of books can be easily written about the rich experiences I gathered in IIBF.

 Undoubtedly, a fantastic job experience and career for me.

Be happy. Be safe.

ॐ

6AM