Leadership- You can't be trained

In the corporate world, the word 'leadership' makes a lot of hue and cry at public forums. There are plethora of courses, seminars and workshops on the same, for managers. But when it comes to day to day working in the organization, this remains a rare feature among people. Do we exhibit this behavior or even take cognizance of these before acting? Mostly, we don’t. Not because we don’t remember or we don’t want to; but because ‘Leadership’ doesn’t work that way. As a matter of fact, this is something one should not try to learn. Either you have it or you don’t. Period!

As a human, we possess certain subjective traits, which influence people around us. These traits can be exhibited with the way we talk to people, the way we listen to people and the way we understand people. And ‘the way’ determines how we influence people. Definitely, the behavior of people around us is a good indicator of the traits we possess.

But the first problem is- can we identify whether self is a leader or not? There is a difference between the one who is a leader vs. the one who thinks he is a leader. Later being more harmful as it blinds you from the actual surrounding behavior and lets you consume a prejudiced format of the same perceived by self-obsession. A classic case of ‘Dunning Kruger effect’; where in one is so unskilled that he is unable to assess that he is unskilled.

If it can’t be fed (as one of the electives in your MBA!), then how do we acquire it. I believe it is a process of years of lithification under the influence of leaders to plug porous cavities of one’s character. If in business, money begets money; in any organization, leadership begets leadership. And this constitutes the culture of organization as a whole. Yes, you can’t be taught but you can definitely assimilate. No crash course for that! And it is not just we human, but many other living beings; a pack of wolf, being one of the popular examples.

Having pointed out the core of leadership, it is also not practically possible or right to expect that everyone should possess this extraordinary trait. Rare quality comes to rare people. So what type of proxy a manager should use to ensure that his effect to the team is at least of a pseudo- leadership? And what type of rules & policy should an organization put in place to ensure a productive and motivated environment? The answer to this question has eluded HR managers of almost all the organizations.

But sometimes I ponder, do we actually need leadership skills or need to ‘learn’ leadership skills given the difference in every type of organization. How will it differ among different type of work spaces e.g. a contractor handling a group of blue collar workers, a sales head managing a bunch of salesman, a senior consultant heading its corporate executives and an army officer leading troop? At the end of the day, it is the task that has to be completed which is at team’s disposal and there is a command that will ensure that it is done. The quality of command will determine the quality, efficacy and timeliness of the job done as well as willingness, loyalty and attentiveness of the doer. Needless to say, the leadership skills determine the quality of command.

For people who have masked themselves as a leader, they need to understand that, there is a thin line between quality of command and control in the group.

To add to the importance of leadership, there is a tangible cost associated with the lack of it. If you have spent a good amount of time in corporate world; you would know many tricks used by your ‘boss’ (intentionally didn’t use the word ‘leader’) to get things done. Be it hand-twisting, divide and rule, responsibility shrugging, pampering seniors and expecting the same from juniors, creating prejudiced opinions, ego massaging, self-righteousness etc. Definitely these don’t promote camaraderie in the team. But it does hamper the productivity and usable man-hours. Depending upon the level of infringement at one’s work place, it may cost up to 40% of the employee cost.

Cost is high and the traits are rare. What’s the solution? This has been an age old conundrum. Recently, many organizations have started using psychometric test to evaluate their employee. Gauging emotional quotient is another practice in this regard. But those are too, susceptible to inaccuracies and feigning. Another option can be 360 degree review mechanism in an organization. Probably this may help to identify who is a leader and who is not; but it will definitely not train someone with leadership skills. So are we out of option to identify a leader at an early stage? May be; May be not. But, for sure, we need to delve deep into it, to ensure better and productive working environment. I will leave this as a food for thought for eminent HR professionals to work upon.

All said and done, I will end this with a quote of Mark Twain:

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

Choices & Consequences

what to choose!

Choices and consequences share a causal relationship with each other. One shapes the other. Life spins in the fabric of these two; with a slight disruption from luck, which, I believe, is non-pivotal. Luck is like a garnish, which will add to taste only if your core recipe is great. One’s perspective, character, moral compass; name any psychological/sociological parameter, it is a resultant of this duo. With life experiences, one can predict the consequences fairly accurate with the choices they make.

There are lots of choices one faces in life; some bad, some good, some tough, some easy. But the one you choose is very indicative to the personality you possess. Where did you get your exclusive persona in the first place? Probably from the choices you made in the course of your life time to shape it as such. You see… it is a vicious circle of choices you make & character you possess.

But it has to have a starting point! The centrifugal force for this circle of sociological behavior is one’s external environment. This vector decides whether you choose consequence before choice or choice before consequence. The inclination in one’s decision is directly related to the surroundings he is exposed to. The effect is denser at early years. It is very tough to correct the compass at later point in life. As if the magnet has lost its field.

The choice of choosing a choice or consequence prior to an event is the real choice. Make it right! You will be at peace with your mind & heart.

Just an incident...

Just an incident during my official trip in Chennai few days ago:

After office I was heading towards my hotel in a cab (ola). The fat and young driver of the cab seemed a bit frustrated. He was attending frequent calls, as I could guess, from his home. Continuously speaking in Tamil which I could not decipher but I could sense he was irritated with the calls. After sometime he started talking to me-

Driver (in his Tamil acsent): "Too much traffic sir. Chhahh. Heavy traffic. chhahh"

The word 'chhahh' seemed to be his punctuation when he was irritated.

Me: "Yes, it is"

Driver: "Ola money or cash sir?" He asked me way before my destination.

Me: "ola money"

Driver: "chhahh sir chhahh. No ola money sir. Cash sir. Chhahh."

Me: "what?"

Driver: "I want cash sir. No ola money sir"

I was wondering why he was adamant on cash. I became a bit angry over his demand. I replied, " Why ? I have ola money, why should I pay cash?"

Driver: "No sir, return ola money, chhahh, I will take cash"

Me (showing a bit of anger): "No. I will not return ola money. I will not give cash to you"

On seeing me angry, he fell silent. After driving for a couple of kms, he started speaking again: "Sir, you can get down. I will not charge anything. I will return in cash the Ola money deducted from your account. Chhahh. You can take another cab." This time I could feel a heavyness in his voice.

There is something, that I was missing in this situation. So I decided to probe a bit.

Me: "Why you don't want to take ola money?"

Driver: "Sir, from morning everyone is giving ola money, chhahh. I have no cash. Only ₹200. I can swipe card for petrol. But where will I get food? No swiping for food."

I was curious whether still we have long lines outside ATMs. But his situation seemed authentic. Leaving the cab in the middle won't serve anyone's objective. So I decided to help him out.

After fiddling the app I discovered how to transfer ola money to any of your friend's account and transferred the total amount before reaching my destination. Afterwards, I paid him cash when I reached my hotel. He was way more thankful to me for going out of the way to help him. Although it was hardly any effort for me, but it had huge importance to him.

Sometimes, not being adamant to stick to rules is the right thing to do!

A ghostly meet!

I am Shwetank & this is my story…

I set an alarm for 2:15 AM and climbed on the upper berth. This train, Sealdah-Varanasi express reaches Pakur at 2:35 AM. It is really an odd time to reach home. From station, I take a rickshaw to home which is nearly 2 km away. I generally visit my home at Pakur on weekends. It is about six-hours train journey from Kolkata. So I take a train on Friday night to Pakur and again on Sunday night to Kolkata. It is a kind of routine activity. Pakur is a small town with a radius of approximately 3 km. So as you can guess, my home is not at the heart of the city.

Tring tring! It was 2:15. Damn! I looked outside. The train was standing at a station named Rajgram. ‘Why this train is always on time.’ I always wished it to be delayed by may be 3 hours, so that I reach my station in the morning after a good slumber. Anyway, next station was Pakur. So I started taking out my luggage. Within a few minutes, train reached Pakur.

I came outside the station. Few rickshaws were standing there; but I decided to have a cup of tea first. I moved past them to a nearby tea stall. It was the month of December and at 2:45 AM it was really cold. My jacket and muffler were barely capable of keeping cold away. And my Jeans had already given up at the moment I got off the train. Relief was this hot tea- a kind of elixir to my shivering body.

After paying for tea, I moved back towards the rickshaw stand. To my surprise, none were there. That means other passengers already booked them and left. So I was at the station, shivering, at 2:50 AM, preparing to walk 2 km in cold. Choices & priorities should always be clear in life, howsoever trifle it may be!

I started walking down the road with my back pack on my shoulder. After walking a few steps on the road, I spotted a rickshaw. I was way more delighted to express. It was in a secluded place with no people around. The man was sitting on the back seat with a shawl across his body. With a beard on his face & heavily built, I started to perceive him a threat. But he was calm, sitting there and smoking a ‘bidi’. Not willing to walk in this cold for 2 km, I approached him and said in an ostensible confident accent, “Hey, ready to go?”

“Where to?” He replied in a deep voice.

My confidence went for a toss after listening to his harsh voice. Not willing to look feeble, I looked at my watch. It was 3:00 AM. The time, as shown in many horror movies, is highly inauspicious. So I have another angle of threat. For a moment, I thought ‘I should walk’. But again, how that is going to help!

“Towards K.K.M. College” I said.

“60 rupees”

“OK”

I was sitting there, shivering. He was paddling slowly and steadily. The silence of the road was punctuated by the rhythmic sound of the paddle & chain of the vehicle. Road was intermittently lit with street lamp, some very dim, some flickering. It seemed a perfect stage for something supernatural. My journey was one km on the main road and then a right turn and another kilometer towards college. The road after the turn is called college road. This road does not have any street lamp. To add more, for first half kilometer, on college road, there are houses on either side; but next half kilometer there is a pond (quite big one) situated on one side of the road and a field with big trees like Mango, Banyan etc. on the other side of the road. After a few meters, where the pond ends, is my home. Yes, it is a kind of farm house.

We both were silent, slowly moving towards my destination. The closed shops on either side seemed mute and curious spectator of our journey. I looked at my watch. It was 3:10 AM. He took a right turn to the college road. In some portion of the road, it was lit by bulbs on the verandah of some houses, otherwise it was dark. Once I thought of lighting flash light of my mobile, but I restrained. I didn’t want to take hands out of my pocket. I was about to reach near the pond. The sight of the pond and field was a bit frightening. Now the pond was to my left and Banyan tree was to my right.

“These were once very isolated places” said the man while paddling.

“Hmm” I replied with an anxiety over his sudden curiosity to start a conversation at 3:15 AM

“Even now very few homes are there” He continued.

“Hmm” I was maintaining my resolve.

“Earlier people didn’t come this way at night.”

There was a very creepy tone in his voice. ‘But I must not be weak’ I thought. We were still on the side of the pond, crossing it. I mustered all my courage and asked in a very hard voice, “Why?”

He turned around, while reducing his paddling speed. He kept on ogling me for a couple of seconds with his eyes wide open…

                      ------------------------Paused------------------------

My name is Guru and this is my story…

I heard the chugging of the train. It must be Sealdah-Varanasi express. It reaches Pakur at 2:35 AM.

‘But I have already completed 3 trips. I won’t take any more passengers from this train. Let’s take a fag instead’ I said to myself and took my rickshaw towards the road, away from railway station. In this December, it is too cold. Thanks to my thick shawl, otherwise I would have frozen. And smoking in this cold weather is bliss.

While I was having my nice & hot ‘bidi’, I saw a man approaching. Both of his hands were in his jacket’s pocket. Face was half covered with muffler.  I wondered, why he is coming towards me, given that, there must be a lot of rickshaw near station. He came near to me and said in a stern voice, “Hey, ready to go?”

He seemed a bit suspicious. Yet I got down of the rickshaw and asked, “Where to?”

‘If it’s nearby, I would make some money, or else I won’t go’ I thought

He paused for a moment and without replying anything, took the seat and then said, “Towards K.K.M. College.”

That place is a bit far and less populated. I didn’t want to go, so I inflated the fare to Rs. 60. Yet he said, “OK” in his stern voice.

The college road is a bit lonely and I was feeling scared to go there at this hour. Still I started moving. The man was very silent. He was not even giving direction, although I didn’t need any. Something inside was telling me not to go towards the pond. I was a bit scary and feeling creepy with this man with a muffler covering his face. Generally, I hardly get any passenger towards college at night. And I have heard a lot of stories though.

‘Are his legs inverted?’ As I turned right towards college road, I covertly looked backward.

‘No, it looks fine.’

Lights were poorly lit in this road. But I continued. I thought of starting a conversation, so that I could be sure that I was not dealing with anything supernatural. I was near the pond. Breaking the silence, I said,

“These were once very isolated places”

“Hmm” he replied.

He didn’t speak.

“Even now very few homes are there” I continued.

“Hmm”, he replied

I looked to my left- A pond.

I looked to my right- A Banyan tree

At my back, a grumpy man who brought me here. A sense of shiver ran across my spine. I was feeling trapped. Still with a positive hope, I continued the conversation,

“Earlier people didn’t come this way at night.”

 To this he became angry and said, “Why?”

I lost my courage. I was pretty sure there was something fishy here. ‘Should I run away? Even if I run, where should I head to?' Ghastly, I turned around to see if the man was still there.

                      ------------------------Paused------------------------

Shwetank’s story continued…

My eyes, filled with horror, exchanged the glance. He replied, “Because, people say this Banyan tree is haunted.”

I started to perspire. Few drops surfaced on my forehead. I was pretty sure, I took the wrong vehicle. I was a non-believer of any supernatural things, not anymore! I was figuring my way out. Either I can jump out and run or I can kick this ghost and then run. Kicking a ghost would be the stupidest thing to do. He was not only a well built figure, but also might have some supernatural powers! I picked my bag and tried to get down to my right. On seeing me getting down, he also jumped to his left. We were standing on either side of the rickshaw, quiet & poised.

Suddenly, he closed his eyes and started murmuring something. ‘Ok, as shown in the movies, he is trying to cast a spell on me’ I thought. I started searching my pockets, for what, I don’t know. I found a ten rupee coin. I took it out and hurled it towards him, while moving forward. It hit him directly on his nose. And he ran behind the rickshaw, out of my vision. This was my perfect time to escape. I put my backpack on my shoulders and started running. I felt he was chasing me because I could hear another pair of legs running. Slowly, the sound of running faded away.

After crossing the pond, I dared to look back. I saw the rickshaw, still standing where I left. As quickly as possible, I reached home and got inside. Oh! Saved!

Next Weekend

As I got down the train, clad with jacket and muffler, I directly went to rickshaw stand. I have learnt my lessons last time. At stand, many of them came near me and started shouting, “Sir, where to go?”, “Sir, where to go?”

I said, “Near K.K.M College”

Suddenly all of them went silent. They were looking at me, baffled. I was a bit surprised.

I thought, ‘What happened, have you seen a ghost or what?”

Room No. 1601

[Present day]

As I am looking outside my car window, the greenery outside, under drizzle, is bright enough to garner all my attention on it. No doubt I am in Punjab. I am travelling from Chandigarh to Ludhiana in an official trip. Although I have been coming to Ludhiana frequently, but the beauty of travelling on roads between green fields has never faded away. Due to my regular visits, I have developed good acquaintances with people here, like my cab driver, hotel staff etc. Generally I stay at the same hotel (I will refrain myself from using the name of the hotel) each time, as it is near to my office. But I had a very unique experience during my last visit.

[One month ago]

As I entered the hotel, I was greeted with preference. The manager allocated my room and said, “Sir, as you are our regular guest, we have upgraded your room with compliments. Here is your card key, room no 1601.”

“Thank you.” Being a loyal customer has its own advantage.

That room was almost same as other rooms, where I had stayed previously. The only difference I could find out was a couple of paintings hanged on the walls. These abstract paintings… I have never been able to decipher it. It looked like a blind person swayed few strokes of multiple brushes dipped in random colors. Anyway it hardly made any difference to me.

‘Ting tong, ting tong’, the doorbell rang. I opened the door. No one! Maybe someone rang it by mistake. I came back to my bed and switched on the TV. Then I ordered a Biryani and started switching channels to find my perfect time pass. Yes, got it- ‘Zindagi na milegi dobara’. Though I had seen that movie, but travel themed movies have always captured my imagination. So I was glued to that movie.

After almost half an hour, the door-bell rang. ‘It must me my dinner’, I murmured & opened the door. No one… Again! I peeped outside into the gallery. A couple with a small kid was standing in front of the room next to mine. The man, apparently husband, was inserting the key card into the card reader multiple times. It seemed the key was not working properly. His wife was trying to give a different perspective in the way the key should be inserted. Howsoever petite matter be it, women always have a new perspective! The 6 year old kid beside them was standing with an innocent face. But I could see the devil in him. I remember my childhood days, when I, along with some of my friends, used to ring our neighbors’ doorbell and run away. It’s a child’s pleasure to accomplish such crime and I was no exception.

But the kid in front of me did not know who he was dealing with. I frowned and squeezed my eyes and gave him a stern look. He smiled! I knew it. It must be him. I murmured, without actually saying anything, as if I was scolding him, with an ominous look to frighten him. He reverted to his innocent mask and hid himself behind his mother holding her hand.

Sensing the movement, the lady looked up towards me. Pretending as if I just looked at them, I gently smiled at her and asked, “Is there any problem with the key.”

“Yes. It’s not reading the card.”

I walked to them to see if I could help. As the kid saw me approaching, he flung towards his father as far away as possible, from me. Good!! I had instilled enough fear in him, for not to bother me again. I tried that key a couple of times. It didn’t work. I advised them, “These problems do occur quite often. Just go to reception, they will update your key.” They moved towards elevator and I came back to my room.

My childhood was spent in a small town in Bihar. doorbells were not used in those places during that time. One of my neighbors installed doorbell, very first in the neighborhood. I was 7 years old then. When I & my friends first visited them to see how it works, we were astounded by its utility. Adding to that it played a tune of a song, another point of attraction for us. For almost a week we admired and respected that doorbell. But we were infamous for not such good emotions. We would choose very odd hours, like afternoon, to ring the bell & run away. We enjoyed watching the frustration of our neighbor coming out & going back with exasperation. We used to bet on the time taken to open the door; whosoever’s quoted time was nearer to the actual time taken, wins the bet. Next bet was on who comes out to open the door. It was our regular activity. Once daily, after we returned from the school and on Sundays, it was our bell festival. Probably that was the reason, within one and a half month, they removed the bell! Surely, it was a big setback for us.

It occurred to me that now days, kids are more fearless. He was doing this in a hotel, to a stranger. Adding to that he would have taken extra care to avoid any attention from his parents.

‘Ting tong, Ting tong’

'What the hell! This must be that kid. They must have returned from the reception. The kid did it again. Don’t his parents control their kid?' Angry & furious, I jumped out of my bed and rushed towards the door. I wanted to catch him red handed. As I opened the door-

“Good evening sir! Room service; your dinner is here.”

After momentary pause, I said “Oh! OK. Keep it over there”

I was already hungry. So without further ado, I started savoring on delicious Hyderabadi Biryani. But my mind was hooked to the door. I had a feeling that it was not over. That kid would return. And yes in 15 minutes- ‘Ting tong, ting tong’.

'Now I got you little devil.' I quickly got up from my chair. My hand hit the serving spoon in the Biryani pot and it swung in the air carrying some rice with it. While the spoon landed on my shoulder, rice bid good bye to spoon somewhere in the air and sprinkled on my face. But I didn’t care. Right then I was more interested in getting that kid. With the face dotted with yellow rice, I hurried towards the door and opened it. No one! No trace of any other creature. Given the speed with which I had answered the bell, escape for the kid was not possible.

'What’s happening? Who can it be?' I wondered.

Now a fear was started sinking in me. Is it some kind of paranormal activity? I was feeling uncomfortable. I quickly completed dinner and went to bed, under quilt. Now everything in that room seemed evil to me; as if some ominous air surrounded me. The abstract painting suddenly turned into something devil like figure. It was very prominent. To lighten the situation, I switched to music channel. My attention was constantly towards the door. I tried hard to convince myself that these were electronic bells. It was quite possible that it had malfunctioned. The more logic I was preparing to counter my fears, more it grew stronger inside me.

‘Ting tong, Ting tong’

I was stiff. This time, I thought, not answering would be the right call. It was 10:30 pm. I waited for a few seconds, then few more seconds. ‘Ting tong, Ting tong’ I felt like shouting. I mustered all my courage and went to the door and opened it.

“Sir, room service. If your dinner is over, can I clean your table?”

“Yes, of course” I felt a sigh of relief. Suddenly it struck my mind to bring the situation to the hotel manager. I said to that staff, “Can you lodge a complaint at reception, that someone is ringing my doorbell. There is a kid in nearby room. May be it’s him. Or else there can be some electrical fault”

“Sure sir, I will report this to our manger” He left.

Within 10 minutes two electricians came to check for any fault. While they were examining all the electrical stuff, I got a call from reception, “Sir, we have cameras in gallery. No one, other than room service, had been to your door.”

“OK. Thank you!” I put down the receiver.

After five minutes of inspection, they were too answer-less. One of them said, “Sir it seems to be alright. If it occurs again, we will change your room.” They left.

It was 11:00 pm. I was alone in a room, apparently haunted room. I left room lights on; increased TV volume; tucked myself under quilt, fully and forced myself to sleep. I felt like hearing doorbell one more time before getting into slumber, but I ignored. Next morning, I checked out as I had to leave for Chennai.

[Present day]

“Sir, we are here, at your hotel” said my driver. So I am again at this hotel in Ludhiana.

As I approached reception, the manager recognized me and said, "Sir, it's good to see you again. We have upgraded your room. Here is your key. It's room no. 1601" 

Welcome to Village

I looked at my watch. It’s 1:45 pm, yet one more hour to go. I am sitting in the class of ‘Marketing in Rural India’ where my professor is delineating various aspects of country’s rural places and demographics. The class is discussing rural people’s disposable income, buying behavior, socio-economic classification etc.

“As per the data the penetration of color TV in rural India is… percentage of village electrified… percentage of household availing electricity… What does this suggest about …” And the class debate is active with lots of data, opinions, questions and cross questions which is well facilitated by our professor.

I wondered how astonished a village person would have been if he came to know that how extensively we tried to understand their market. Because for him the market is simply a weekly haat, a few kirana shop, few tea stalls, a couple of small medicine kiosk, few confectionery primarily sweets and few stalls of chat-pakaura. The village person wondered: What is there to discuss in it so extensively? We get everything we require and a few items which are not available, we can get it from the nearby town; straight and simple.

Is it as simple as put by the village person? Or is it complex enough to muddle our heads in all sorts of available data? I recall a quote by Aaron Levenstein- “Statistics are like bikinis; what they reveal is suggestive, what they hide is vital.”

I used to visit my ancestral village during my summer vacations when I was in school. Recently I visited my native village after four years. It is located in the Sahibganj district of Jharkhand on the bank of river Ganga. Yes, I know you are tempted to say that Ganga crosses Bihar along its width. No. It touches Jharkhand at the north eastern point and there lies my village. For those who have seen villages through the windows of trains or perceive villages to be a congested rural place in urban cities or think villages to be like those depicted in the movies directed by Aditya Chopra, then you have not got even half the picture.

The first thing that pulls me to the village is the joy of joint family; three generations living under one roof in the big house. The space from the boundary wall to the gate of the house is sufficient enough to play cricket for us cousins. And in the backside you have mango orchid. My uncle would make it a point that we all knew the names of different varieties of mangoes, which are differentiated by size, color, texture, smell and yes of course taste. Whenever there was a storm, the orchid would be full of mangoes littering on the ground. Then few poor kids from the village would volunteer to collect all and bring it to my aunt, who would in turn generously give any amount of mango they would like to carry back to their home. The kids would typically hold their frock or shirt to make it a bowl shaped and would fill it with mangoes. This process has not changed since years. Faces have changed.

This time I wanted to explore the psyche of village persons. I wanted to make friends with very poor people; in our jargon we classify them in D or E in socio-economic classification (SEC). You will get people from these clusters in cities, mostly labors, but I don’t consider them to be the true representatives of this class. The city labors are not the free self; instead they are objectified as human machines. To understand the SEC E, in context of rural marketing, I believe we need to go to the village.

When I revealed my plan to my elder cousin, he wondered what I was up to. Then he said- “You can take my car, and take a trip to entire village. Will you be able to drive in this place? You know, any time any pot bellied kid will just run across the street. That run will be a total surprise to you. And they won’t care about your horn.”

Yes this is a typical feature in villages. If any kid sees a car they try to go to where his/her mother is, no matter where she is standing. Or they try to cross the road before the car crosses it. They find it fun! Even the domestic animals like hen, duck, calf, goat etc do the same. I had a bad encounter in my approximately 100 kilometers of cumulative rural road travel experience. A hen crossed the road. Or should I say, couldn’t cross the road! I could have applied brake had I saw it. It started its run at a time when it was out of my line of sight; probably interested in putting its beak in my car’s tire. I had to pay thrice the amount to get away with it. Reason: it would have laid eggs in future which are lost now. Correct, in our jargon, we call it net present value (NPV) of future earnings! Welcome to village.

“Why don’t you take the bike instead?” my cousin asked.

But I had something different in mind. I wanted to go on foot. It will give me a real connect. I started moving towards the bank of the river. The road turns right and then it runs parallel to the shore. The road is elevated to approximately 3 meters from the shore level; probably to check the river water flooding the village in the rainy season. In the summers, the shore line is approximately 15-20 meters away from the road. I saw a few persons sitting on a ‘machaan’ and playing cards. ‘Machaan’ or bamboo deck is a flat square structure of one to two square meters made of bamboo. It is supported by again bamboo on the four side of the square structure. One side faces the road at a height of 1 meter and other side has depth of 3-4 meters. The summer evening on the shore of river was never such pleasant. The cool and humid breeze made me wonder whether it was summer!

I started talking to a person there, about the places to visit here, about their occupation etc. The primary occupation here is farming. They generally work in their small farmland or they work as farm labor to landlords. Others are tractor drivers, mechanics, fisherman and small traders. The place is almost isolated from other world. No newspaper, electricity for 2 to 3 hours a day, so no TV news. But I felt good about it; here I had nothing to worry about! It stroked me; how advertisements reach such places? It motivated me to go to a ‘kirana’ shop to see their SKU (Stock keeping units). It is not that I have never been there; but I have never bothered to see the various brands there. I forwarded towards a shop nearby. As I reached there the shopkeeper recognized me and offered me a seat. A bench outside any shop is common here. For the sake of buying I just bought a cake of soap. All the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) products present were of lower volume packs. Shampoos were in sachet only. No offer packs of soap were available (buy 3 get 1 free of kind). Biscuits ranging from price Rs 2 to Rs 20 were present. I sat there for some time. I found that people were not demanding anything specifically by the name of brands. Instead they said give me a soap or shampoo; whatever shopkeeper gave, they took it. Biscuits were demanded on the price of it. Like biscuit of Rs 5 or Rs 10 etc. Mobile recharge was also available there. I heard the first brand name ‘Vodafone’. Also the board above the store displayed the same name. So communication can penetrate at this level, so why only telecoms not FMCG, given that they have always been forerunner in advertisement. One reason can be the overall revenue is not enough to support any kind of advertisement. So who decides what will be sold here? Only answer to this is, I believe, the strength of your distribution channel and the margins provided to shopkeepers and wholesalers. There were other villagers sitting on the bench and talking about politics. I was only intermittent participant in their discussion, probably because of lack of knowledge of their local political figures and local issues. But I wanted to listen. I took a cup of tea from a nearby stall. Their conversation was mostly related to a particular person rather than on political party as a whole. It was based on core and grass-root issues which bothered them as village person. I tried to give input of some overall picture, but they were reluctant to discuss that. Macro-part of politics never surfaced. I wonder whether those super hyped campaign carried out by political party ever reach such places; the places which have almost 70% of the electorate. No wonder some of the most hyped political campaign like ‘India Shining’ fell flat on the face. Recently, Congress, who has positioned itself as pro-poor and is banking on poor’s vote bank, gives comment like “Poverty is a state of mind” and “Dalits need escape velocity of Jupiter to come out of poverty”. These geeky comments are not understood by 70% of the people and mocked by rest 30%. Anyway, my cup of tea was over. I called it a day and went home.

I stayed there for one week with a purpose to delve deep into village psyche. I made friends there. I visited the school and even took a few classes! They had a different level of contentment in their life. Marketing can be a difficult task under such environment. The basic essence of marketing is to show benefit and value proposed in the form of a product, service, experience, style etc. But if the targeted customer is content and non-aspirational, the criteria of marketing itself narrows. To add more the disposable income is also low. Probably that is the reason HUL went through the route of social benefit with its project Shakti and Khusiyon ki doli for rural marketing. Situation is very different and so is the marketing initiative. I guess, the rural India will give the marketing as a subject enough scope to evolve. Yes, a lot of things to learn in rural marketing.

"Hey, you, what do you think about the methods of communication strategy to be adopted in the rural India?” My professor asked pointing towards me. Oh yes, I am attending the class of ‘Marketing in Rural India’. I replied, “The conventional way of communication is not feasible in such places. We should instead….” The unending discussions continued.

An Introvert Flirt!

I checked my name in the reservation list pasted outside my coach. The first seat of the coach was mine. I put my only backpack on the small desk protruded from the wall of the coach. I checked time, still ten minutes to go. What to do? Let’s check my co-passengers. You know! I came out of my coach, standing in front of the list, moved my fingers vertically: M,M,M,F,M,M. Then horizontally  F, 23, Komal.

Earlier in all my journeys I was always accompanied by ladies with wailing kids; as if a very well planned conspiracy by IRCTC. But the vital data ‘23’ suggests that this time my journey won’t be a cacophony; on the contrary it may be an interesting one, only if she was not a victim of child marriage. Just joking. I always wanted to have some story to brag among my friends; the typical journey story with a guy and a girl accidentally sitting beside each other. Alas! These are only creative pieces of some script writers’ imagination. Well, at least till now! This coincidence was meant to be. As Shahrukh Khan said, “When you want something, whole universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” Oh sorry, it was Paulo Coelho.

My thoughts were disrupted by the lead protagonist of this story. Oh gosh! She was beautiful. She entered with a heavy bag and a purse which slipped down to her wrist from her shoulder. As she put the bag on the floor and left the handle, the purse fell down. She bent down to pick the purse; her long, loose, straightened hair shadowed her face. As her right hand picked the purse, her left hand fixed the hair behind her ears. Her ears bore an earring, a circular golden metal with small bell. I was tempted to touch the small bell to check whether it really rings. For me everything was in slow motion; very slow. As I was examining her earring, I sensed she has ceased to move. Then she looked up towards me. Oh Shit! I looked away instantly. I looked outside the glass window, as if I was religiously enjoying the scene at station.

“Excuse me.” She said.

Dhak! My heart beat stopped for a moment. Was she offended? I didn't know. But I wish she had not worn that earring.

“Yes” I replied with an indifferent expression on my face but with a mixed emotions of fear and anxiety within.

“Can you please move your legs for a moment; I want to put my bag below the seat.”

“Thank God” I murmured with exaltation.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing” With this I just stood up and moved away.

Within few minutes, two other passengers arrived. Rest two, I guess, missed their train. The two protagonists of the story were occupying the window seats. The compartment was silent. I had only five to six hours for conversation if any, if I wanted to have even an iota of story. I have always been a poor player in this regard. I was missing two of my friends; Rahul Kumar from engineering college and Rishi Gupta at MBA College. Both of them have an expertise of initiating talks with any girl. I tried to use the luxury of taking talks further. Anyway, I was on my own, and this was going to be MY story! I boosted myself.

I looked at my watch. It had been two hours. Only the other two passengers were talking that too intermittently. Chugging of train was sprinkled with the sound of cracking chips by her glistening lips. With every cracking sound of chips, her ear ring  swung. I was extra alert to listen; does the bell really ring! I looked at her covertly. She was wearing Kurta, Jeans and a few bangles. And yes, a pair of ear rings. The simplicity of carrying her profound beauty was incredible. The more I saw her, the more I admired her. But sheer admiration is not going to help, that too strictly inexpressive admiration. I mustered all my courage and said, “Where are you going? Patna?”

She replied with half a smile, “I guess this non-stop train goes to Patna.”

With this question I got the right to look at her non-covertly for a few seconds. The width of her smile was perfect and only right cheek was used for the purpose. I don’t know who but, I recall, someone said that the side to which smile spreads says a lot about the person. As per his theory, the girl uses her right brain more than her left. Was this some kind of big bang theory? I didn't know. But if I were to believe him, the girl in front of me, was more artistic than logical. Perfect!

I replied, “Oh yes, Of course. The train is on time it will be there by 8 in the morning I guess. ”

“Hmm, I wish so. But after Kanpur it generally delays. I saw data on the internet for last one week. As per that I think it will be delayed by 2 hours.” She said.

Come on, you can’t be logical. You were supposed to be artistic and creative kind of girl. I was expecting an answer like ‘It is not the duration but the journey that matters’. Whatever, I found it the opportune moment for introduction.

“Hi, I am Shwetank” I said with a dilemma, whether to forward my hand for a shake. I restrained.

“Hi I am Komal. So where do you live in Patna?” she asked.

“I don’t. I have some work for a day, after that I will catch a train to Banka? It’s a place near Bhagalpur”

“Hmmm”

With this, conversation ended and I again started looking across the translucent window. And she continued with the remaining chips in her packet. Unable to find any new topic, I engaged myself with my own thoughts.

Yet another two hour passed. Silence in the compartment was no longer awkward; it became one of the salient features of the place. Sometimes I wonder why I am unable to be expressive in my opinions. During my classes at MBA College, whole class had to undergo a MBTI test. It is a test which categorizes your personality traits. No wonder my result showed Introvert! But breaking the shackles of introvert-ism was key here. Have I been always like this? 

I looked back into my life, the day when I was in school in class five or six. I was always very silent kind of guy in the class. In my class there was a girl. Of course I won’t name her here. Let her be Aisha. I never talked with her. You know why, ‘the introvert’. I would never forget that day. I was sitting just behind Aisha. Suddenly the voice came.

“Those who have not brought the book. Stand up.” The teacher said in his tyrant voice.

Oh god. I didn't have the book. I looked around. One by one, students were getting up. I had no choice but to stand up. I didn’t fear the punishment; but in front of her, no. Someone please save me; I begged. First-benchers had typical habit of turning around to see who all are going to be punished. I was about to get up. She turned around. I sat again. She sensed my movement.

She said looking at my desk, “Even you have not brought the book?”

I could not speak. You know why, ‘the introvert’. The word ‘even’ used in her speech was really insulting for me at that point of time. I just nodded my head in 'no'. She smiled. Very cleverly she transferred the book from her desk to mine.

And said, “Don’t worry. Sir won’t tell me anything. ”

Yes, I know. She won’t be punished. She was typically excluded from any sorts of punishment. Anyway, I was saved. Shouldn't it be a situation where a guy saves a girl? It was opposite! But the book…

“Excuse me. Can I have that book?”

“What?” I replied.

“I mean the magazine. Can I borrow that, if you are not reading?”

I came to myself. I realized that I was in a train and in front of me was Komal.

“Oh! Sure, why not? It’s ‘India Today’. You like politics.”

“Not fond of. But I am not apolitical.”

Logical, Political… lady you are going away from my perceived characters of you.

After half an hour, the ordered railway food arrived. She had not ordered anything. She took out her lunch box. There were ‘Parathas’ wrapped in aluminum foil, ‘aloo bhujia’ and pickles. It looked tastier than my railway meal. Anyways, I had to do with what I had. I again started to admire the elegance with which she took her food. She took small pieces of Paratha which she easily chewed with subtle and sexy movement of her cheeks, apparently. I counted; literally, she divided one Paratha into eight crumbs. I would have taken that in three or at max four. I looked at my Paratha. Needless to explain, we all have at some point of time eaten that pathetic food.

"Do you want some paratha?" She asked.

Why did she ask me? Probably she had more than she could consume. Or she saw me gazing at her Paratha! I don't know why, but I felt that later was the case. If that's true, then it's bad.

"It's good, at least better than your railway food." She added sensing my pause.

"No no it's ok. What shall you have then?"

"I have many. At least take one."

I picked one. Its taste was really good. But wait, how did she know that I was looking at her food. She never looked at me. Do women really have broader sight as compared to men? I heard that quite a time but never bothered to take it seriously. In that case, am I sure she didn't know while I was looking at her earring when her purse fell on the floor? Am I sure she didn't notice me watching her, so called covertly, when she was enjoying her chips. I don't know how but suddenly I started feeling numb and cold.

"Are you all right?" She asked.

"Yes, I am OK."

It took me time to come to normalcy. It was time to sleep now. We all prepared our bed and soon everyone was fast asleep. I kept on pondering on different moments as spent. The very essence of introvert-ism comes from the complexity of unnecessary thought process. It gives you a good power of imagination. But this imagination weaves a fabric of hypothetical situation which can be tough for even an extrovert to handle. And thus it can be said with a fair degree of accuracy that an introvert is better at handling such situations, if real. I knew this was the end of my story. I guess universe didn't conspired honestly in helping me to achieve what I wanted. I knew the freshly sprouted hopes of friendship would die a nascent death.

“Hey, get up.” A sweet voice woke me up. It was her.

“It’s time... We are in Patna.” She said gently.

I looked around. Train was at station. The other two passengers had left. I looked at my watch. It was 8:30 in the morning. She had already packed her belongings and ready to leave.

“Be quick or you will land up in the yards.” She said with little worry, watching me lazy.

“Thanks” I said.

With this she picked her bag and moved towards exit. She was carrying her heavy bag with great effort. I quickly came out of my blanket and offered her my help.

"Can I help you?"

"Oh! Thank you."

Each one of us held one handle of her bag and moved towards exit. We put her bag on the platform, and then I returned to my seat to collect my bag. There was a great urge in me to say her, ‘Let's meet again (given that I would have been in Patna for the day)’. But I didn't. You know why, ‘the introvert’.