The Leaders

History books are the best management books and the lives of great kings and conquerors are the best leadership stories. Those personalities in the history may be bad guys in one perspective or the other, but the history books will have only empty pages if we go on removing their names based on our perception of good or bad.

Here is a man often referred by modern management gurus. He is Hernando Cortes, a Spanish conquistador of 16th century who brought Mexico under Spanish control and began the Spanish colonization in the Americas. When he reached the American shores, he had a limited number of soldiers with him and already rebelled his superiors who did not match his aggressiveness. He understood that it was going to be a uphill task as they had to fight not only the Aztec tribes but also the challenges posed by the dense forests. He also realized that the soldiers could lose confidence at any time and withdraw from the battle. And Hernando did not wish to compromise with anything other than victory. Guess what he did. Once all the soldiers alighted from the boats, he ordered immediately, "Burn the boats"!

No wonder that Sun Tsu's "Art of War" is the best management book ever written!

First of its Kind

I came across this piece of information through a strange path. I was reading Norman Lewis' 'Better English' in which he was trying to explain adjective with an example, 'obscene book'. He also gave an example for an obscene book and it was John Cleland's Fanny Hill (though 'Better English' mentions the name as Samuel Cleland by mistake).

There are many interesting things about this man, John Cleland. His novel, 'Fanny Hill' (or, 'Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure'), was actually the first of its kind, i.e., the first pornographic novel in English. It was published in two installments in 1748 and 1749. Not surprisingly the novel was banned immediately at that time. He then attempted to publish few more novels with less erotic content, but they were not up to the 'standard' of Fanny Hill. As the story goes, John Cleland was offered a life time pension by the British Empire on a condition that he should stop writing!

Interestingly John Cleland has served as a soldier in East India Company and lived in Mumbai for about twelve years. He has written the novel, Fanny Hill, during his stay in Mumbai. Another interesting fact was that he remained a bachelor till death.

An Anecdote

Zen is popularly known for its anecdotes and so is Superstar Rajinikanth. I liked this anecdote that he instantly shared during his interview to Sun  TV on Nov 5, 2010 (first time after 1996, if I am not wrong).

There was a kingdom located on a river bank. It had a rule that the king can rule only for five years and after five years he would be sent to a jungle on the other side of the river where the man-eating animals and cannibal tribes lived. No king who had been sent to the jungle ever returned. They were killed, apparently. Many of the kings died even before their five year tenure in the fear of the cruel death in the jungle.

Then came a king who ruled unusually happily for five years. On successful completion of his tenure, he departed from the country and was on his to the jungle on a boat. The boatman was quite surprised by the king's placid and cheerful state of mind. He finally asked the king, "I have seen only the kings who were weeping and crying while travelling to the jungle. How could you manage to be cheerful and calm?"

The king laughed and answered, "When I became the king, the first thing I did was to send the hunters and soldiers into the jungle to hunt down all the predators and cannibals living there. Then, in the second year, I built palaces there and in the following years I converted the jungle into a livable place and populated the area. The only thing left now is that I go there and ascend the throne."

Rajinikant said this anecdote to explain the importance of planning in the context of Endhiran project. If we make our goals clear, set the plan for achieving the goal and execute it as planned, everything is possible. Though we all know this, hearing this from Rajinikanth with his style and accent was a fantastic thing to remember.

Liar

Everyone of us must have lied at least at one point of time. At least, you must have lied to your kid to make him eat properly. However, we are always scared of being identified as a liar though we are comfortable with its synonyms ("a successful salesman"). The psychology and even vocabulary books classify liars into different categories.

Here I just think about those who lie habitually - just as they go. Not those who strategically or prudently lie for serious matters. I just think about those who naturally lie whenever something comes upon them. What I understand is that such a liar makes all those who are around him liars. For example, there are friends standing together in a party. The power went off suddenly and Mr. A has spilled the drink on floor. When the lights are on again, the guys naturally ask Mr. A, who is standing nearby the spilled drink, how it happened. He habitually lies that he didn't do that. Now, no one else in the group can admit the responsibility simply because they didn't do that. Thus, one habitual liar in that group has made everybody a liar to each other. This is the potential danger with the habit of lying habitually. the danger is because it happens in ordinary occasions.

The danger for the habitual liar is that he is often caught; he is also often doubted in his circle for the mistakes he hasn't committed. However, it is only with respect to those who know about him personally. Otherwise, he is potentially dangerous in portraying others as liars.

We may also have that habit hidden inside - not manifested in all the occasions, but in few. I believe that such a habit develops in us because we do not recognize the thrill in being faithful to the incident that happens in front of us. Once we start registering the incidents as they happen without allowing our feelings or thoughts to interfere, the habitual lying is likely to disappear. The key is how we register the incident in our mind - no matter whether we are invloved with the incident or somebody else is invloved. Most of the habitual liars do not have the right record of the incident in their minds - it is recorded or attempted to be recorded by their minds in the way how they wish that it should have happened. This false record or the confusion in their minds the between the original record and the desired record is exhibited as a habitual lie when it is communicated out.

It is very much important that one has to come out of this confusion or false recording of any incident. The observer should distance himself from what is observed (Zen?!). Once recorded as it happened, the observer then has the choice how to communicate it outside. He can 'choose' to communicate it how it happened or he can still 'choose' to lie. But, it is in his hands - that is the point. He no more lies habitually. Even if he lies, it is a conscious decision to do so and therefore, he minimizes the chances of being caught! Enough for this post!

Not a joke!

I have heard this joke and am not sure if it had really happened. The joke goes like this. It happened during the rule of Joesph Stalin in Russia. One of the costly wrist watches of Stalin was missing (Interestingly Stalin was a watch collector as some netizens discuss here.) He immediately alerted the police chief and asked him to trace the thief and the watch. However, after half an hour or so, Stalin could locate his watch and realized that he had misplaced it. He called the police chief to convey his regrets and stop searching. As soon the police chief lifted the phone, he informed Stalin, "We have arrested five suspects and one has already accepted that he has stolen. Don't worry. We will get your watch soon." This may be a joke. However, it has just happened in Delhi in real life.

The real story goes like this. A boy has fallen in love with a girl. The boy and girl were missing for few days. A dead body has been located by the police and the boy's parents have identified that the body was of their son. The police have arrested that girl's brother and he has accepted that he has murdered the boy. The news attracted the media under the heading of 'honor killing'. The next day, both the boy and the girl have appeared in front of the police. The boy was alive. You can read further in the following links:

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article425797.ece

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/-Honour-killing-victim-reports-to-police-station/articleshow/5910378.cms

Mervin

Eavesdrop

The dictionaries ask us to pronounce as 'eevz-drop'. The word appears to have originated from architecture. Eave is an overhanging lower edge of a roof. Eavesdrop is a small, but not very visible hole specifically designed to listen what 'drips' from the eaves. A picture of eavesdrop may be found here. Henry VIII of England used such a set up at his Hampton Court palace and appointed spies to listen what his staff were talking. These spies were called eavesdroppers.

Thus, an interesting meaning of 'eavesdropping' is derived. It is an act of listening secretly to a private conversation. I was curious about this term because the eavesdropping of telephone conversation is a serious issue in the modern age. It often makes furore in our parliaments when the phones of the members are tapped. The word 'eavesdropping' generally suits to the act when a telephone conversation between two parties is recorded or listened by a third party without the knowledge of the two who are involved in the conversation. There is another variant where one of the two parties records the conversation without the knowledge of the other. Nowadays most of the mobile phones are in the market with a feature of recording the conversation. Even if the feature is not provided by the manufacturer, we can have it by installing a software designed for that purpose.

I tried to find out from the net if it is legally allowed in India or elsewhere. Can we legally record our conversation on phone without the knowledge of the one who is on the other side of the phone? It seems that it is legally wrong unless the government authorizes to do so. Agreed. If it is recorded illegally, can it be produced to the court as an evidence against the person without whose knowledge it was recorded? It seems that it is also allowed. Perhaps the one who recorded may also be punished independently for the illegal recording. Let me search more on this and write about it in another occasion.

I came across this adage: "eavesdroppers seldom hear anything good of themselves"

The Purpose

Anything can be a starting point for learning. Knowledge is hidden everywhere especially after the information revolution. Paying attention to a pin (just a pin!), which may be in front of us, and surfing the net with a key word 'pin' will take us to different domains of knowledge. What all required is our passion for the knowledge that is hidden behind the pin. Pin is only an example. The starting point may be a book, a comment by a friend or just a spark of thought in our mind. Once absorbed by the mind, it creates a chain of thoughts leading to a kaleidoscopic path. The knowledge, thus, transforms into wisdom. Most of the times we do that, but forget to register it or lose the track. Knowledge is volatile and it just evaporates unless it is stored appropriately. I started this blog to keep track of such knowledge - probably turned into wisdom - and store it. Of course, the definition of wisdom and knowledge varies from person to person!