Best of Luck Mr. Bhatti

Today I met a real victim of Demonetisation. Let us call him Mr. Bhatti. Riding in a taxi in Delhi, a small piece of conversation with Mr. Bhatti made me realize that he is not a stereotypical taxi driver. Something in the first few words made me shift from the back to the front seat and engage Mr. Bhatti in a conversation.

Mr. Bhatti, it seems was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His dad had a factory in 1979 which supplied AC to DC (Or is it the other way around?) switches to a television company.  Mr. Bhatti enjoyed his childhood and his father owned a hotel in Manali where they would spend their vacations. There was never a need for education for Mr. Bhatti. After Class 12, Mr. Bhatti’s father opened another factory for him. Life was excellent and the Bhatti’s were rolling in money.

But then televisions moved from black and white to colour. Technological advances made the Bhatti’s factory redundant. They had to sell everything to pay off their dues and start back from scratch.

But our friend Mr. Bhatti was made of sterner stuff. He borrowed a small amount and set up an office of a real estate agent. He started with thousands, made lakhs and turned them into crores. He converted himself to a builder and started implementing real estate projects in the NCR region. Life was again back to normal… or so it seemed.

2008 brought a global crisis and a slowdown in the housing market. Mr. Bhatti lost money and was cheated by his partners. He lost everything. Another riches to rags event – another setback

He then started working with a real estate developer. Someone who was once the owner was now an employee. Salaried people will never ever understand this transition. I am amazed at Mr. Bhatti’s resilience. He started cutting down on his expenses. Someone who spent in lakhs per month, was now working at a salary of Rs. 55,000 per month. Try doing that my friends. Try explaining to your wife and children that the outings, shopping, toys, movies, dinners or any other spending which was once normal is now to be curtailed.

Then comes November 2016. It is an open secret that demonetization has hit the real estate sector extremely hard. Mr. Bhatti lost his job, as the real estate company he was working for downsized their costs and in turn their employees

Today  Mr. Bhatti drives a taxi. Some one who  once owned 5 cars, drives a rental taxi. He earns upto Rs. 25,000 per month. He now has to downsize his expenses by more than half. I shudder to think how he is dealing with a 12 year kid’s aspirations. Mr. Bhatti is unhappy with the hand that fate has dealt him. But he is not completely bitter about it. He goes about his work hoping for a better tomorrow.

What Mr. Bhatti is unhappy about is this. His friends who did all kinds of unscrupulous things thrive today, while somebody like him, who hasn’t had any wrongdoings (as he says) is suffering. His aunt is a sanyasi. She says this is the result of the karma of his previous life. He says he is not bothered about previous life or future life. He is bothered about his aspirations, his family his current life. My heart goes out to Mr. Bhatti. That 45 minute ride taught me quite a few lessons.

The first setback in the Bhatti’s life was the development of technology, which took away their living. Is this a sign of things to come? While one may be pardoned for not being so forward looking way back in the 1980s, the situation is different today. The pace of development of technology is rapid and the day is not too far away, when quite a few of our jobs will be taken away by technology. If today we do not anticipate the change, and live in our cocoons and comfort zones, we are idiots.

Secondly, let us not undermine the value of education and upgrading our skills. The one regret Mr. Bhatti has, is that he does not have a qualification. But with a silver spoon in his mouth and factory under his belt, he didn’t need it; or so he thought. Today thinking like this is committing suicide. The quality of education is a different matter, but education is an entry barrier.

I would like to end this by paying a tribute to Mr. Bhatti’s resilience. If growing up in poverty is tough, a riches to rags story is tougher. The mental make up and adjustment required to bear the humiliation from family members, questions from children, accepting and living through failure is not at all easy.

Salute to you Mr. Bhatti. Some day our paths shall cross and I hope you will see better days and we shall have a drink together. Best of luck for a better future.

Sikka Bolta Hain

As a child my grandmother used to tell me fairy tales. These tales were etched in memory and as we grew up we started narrating those same tales to our children. We grew up believing a lot of these stories and treating them as gospel. As we matured, we realized that they are not true, but are an effective way of keeping children engaged and scaring them, so that they behave or eat their food. It was a convenient way of bringing discipline.

As I began my career, I was told that the most important thing is the quality of work you do. Money can come later. So early in my career, I grew up working for a pittance gaining valuable experience. After doing a good job for a few years, I got promoted. My designation got better but the pay hike just about defeated the interest rate on fixed deposits by a whisker. A few years later, when I had done well and it seemed apparent that I would definitely get promoted, I again missed out. Once again my pay hike competed fiercely with the interest rate on fixed deposits. I don’t remember who won.

After waiting for an eternity, I finally decided to change my job. I was under pressure from my family to buy a new house, get married, settle down. Some recruiter tracked me down, offered me a position in a good company, with a decent salary hike. It was decent by my standards, but astronomical by the increment standards set by my own company. I went with my resignation letter to my manager. He was angry, disappointed and made me feel ashamed that I am changing jobs only for money. I felt as if I was stealing some national treasure and nearly took back my resignation.

But the women in my life prevailed. My mom was very clear, “I don’t understand your career, shareer… I only know the size of the pay cheque you get home.” My would be wife threatened to break the alliance. Finally between, two marriages, I knew which one to choose.

As I grew in the organization, I also started telling the same fairy tales to my juniors while doling out increments. I knew they were not true, but my job was to ensure that crumbs which are handed out are made to feel like cookies.

Once I took a job in Saudi Arabia, and on the day of joining the HR manager asked me, what made you take this role? Unabashedly, I said money. I mean one goes to Saudi Arabia for only two reasons – Pilgrimage or Money. I was then asked, ok other than money what interests you in the role? I wanted to say ‘nothing’ , but cooked up some story. I quickly realized that whenever I am planning to change jobs for money, I need to talk about the excitement in the new role, the challenges etc. and relegate money to just a by-product.

But last week has changed everything. Infosys founder Narayana Murthy criticized the Infosys board for hiking the COO’s salary by 60%. He called it bad governance. His contention was how would somebody who gets a 60% hike, justify the measly 6% to 10% increment for the juniors or the worker ants, the ones who collect the honey. His contention is right.

The current CEO of Infosys disagreed with Narayana Murthy’s view. He quoted numbers that the cash component had gone down, while the variable component was up – basically a lot of mumbo jumbo to confuse everyone. What is more important is that he said, that this was required to retain talent.

Really? So what does this do to the fairy tale that motivation, culture, job role, job satisfaction are more important? Ask 95% of the HR managers and they will tell you that money is not the only motivator for the employee. They will use this fairy tale to ensure pay hikes are restricted and in turn splurge money on parties, offsites  etc.  And if money is a motivator for someone who earns in crores annually, why should it not be for the juniors? The HR managers are going to have a lot of answering to do. Temptation is sin. But if someone offers me a 30% jump in my salary, I will be more than willing to give in to temptation.

One thing is now very clear. From today onwards, if I am changing a job for money, I am not going to be apologetic about it. After all as a colleague once said, “Aashirwaad se pet nahin bharta”; “Blessings do not feed a person.”

From now on, fairy tales have to be questioned. After all, Sikka bolta hain. 

Life is a Balance Sheet

This one is emotional… maybe incoherent. Yesterday I had decided to write about Taapsee Pannu. Today, I came to know of an incident which has shaken me…  I am now trying to piece both thoughts together. I hope it makes sense at the end.

Someone I know, has been accused of sexual harassment. I knew him personally more than fifteen years ago and today he is on the run. I have worked with him, gone to his house, his wife was friends with my mother and my wife and today he is hiding from the police. An FIR has been filed against him and there is a manhunt for him. The incident has shaken me. While I don’t want to make a value judgement and pronounce him guilty, I don’t even want to defend him and pronounce his innocence. Only he knows the truth.

Though I am sad for what his family has to go through, I have no sympathies for him. To me life is a game of chess. One needs to be aware of the consequence of every decision one is taking. If they are not, they are foolish. This statement from me may seem arrogant – you know what; it could even come back and bite me. But I am fine with the same.

I wondered how someone so educated can stoop to this level. And then I recollected a recent meeting with a famous author. He said that every successful man has three handles of power – Money, Position and Women. It is a surreal how quickly these words would prove itself when it comes to someone I know personally. There is a line which goes “Vinaashkaale Vipareetbuddhi”. Loosely translated, this means that when you are destined to destruct, you will have a brain fade.

Now about three film personalities. Over the last few months we have been hearing about the verbal table tennis between Kangana Ranaut and Karan Johar. And today I read that Kangana is to star in the next Dharma Productions (Karan Johar’s home production) movie. So was this a publicity stunt? I don’t know. But one thing is true. There is nepotism in the film industry and it is very difficult for someone to break in or get as many breaks as the star children get.

Which brings me to Taapsee Pannu.  While she is a successful actor down south, she made her Bollywood debut in 2013 with the remake of the movie Chashme  Baddoor, with her in the lead role. The movie sank at the box office and Taapsee’s career in Bollywood was going nowhere. Being an outsider also did not help. In 2015, she got a bit role in the Akshay Kumar starrer Baby. This character was liked so much by people that, the producers decided to make an entire movie on her character Shabana. I am sure, Taapsee would have expected the lead role in Chashme Baddoor to catapult her career. Even in her wildest of dreams, she would not have expected the eight minute role in Baby to take her career forward. In between there was a strong role in Pink, which had Amitabh Bachchan in the lead role with three unknown (?) women in the movie. This role got her critical acclaim. Gut tells me, Naam Shabana will be a hit and we shall see more of Taapsee.

What all the above events tell me clearly, is that your script is being written by someone else. They say fact is stranger than fiction, and it is absolutely true. When I look at events in my life over the last 24 months, they are nothing short of a potboiler. Unconnected events, unconnected people come together to form a future for you which you have never thought of. The way these things have come together and contributed to my career is clearly amazing.

Over the last few years, I have told people that I am fatalistic. No that doesn’t mean, I have resigned myself to fate. I still have to do all the hard work and take all the smart decisions that are required. However, the outcomes are not in my hand. I have had instances where whatsoever one does, if something is destined not to happen, it will not. At the same time, if something is scheduled to happen, it definitely will. I have seen both sides, despair and joy. I just need the strength to handle both success and failure.

Success can give you arrogance and the feeling that one can do nothing wrong. I pray that my scriptwriter gives me the power to keep my head on my shoulders, be humble, treat people rightly and with respect and not get carried away by success either of position or money. And just when you think you have the Midas touch, “Vinaashkaale Vipareetbuddhi” comes in to the picture. At the same time, I hope I have enough strength and resolve to handle failure.

Life, after all, is a Balance Sheet.