WHATSAPP IN MY LIFE?

Their expectations have gone up…. No, zoomed up. They want me to respond - here and now. I am almost leading the life of a call centre executive - or worse still, a frontline retail store manager on an annual sale day! And may be you are too! 

Today, I have relatives, friends sending tons of good morning messages, quotes, jokes, videos. I am expected to see, read, respond to all the videos. Whatsapp has brought out the motivational leader in each one of us. We are rampantly forwarding achievements, extraordinary feats by ordinary achievers and what not. I, however, do not recollect, the last video or motivational video I saw today. Not that I don’t care about the video - be true to yourself – I am sure you also cannot name the top 3 videos – even the ones you really liked!

Average of 60 minutes of video content being sent per day and… anytime through the day.

 

Can I focus on anything for more than 60 minutes without having interluding Whatsapp messages? I need to keep peering in to see is it relevant, important, hope I have not missed the relevant one…. And lo & behold – the blue ticks just keep ticking away – and a call comes in – “ I have sent you the message – you have not yet responded”! I wish I had a program that could sort out urgent, important messages that need priority attention!

I am suffering from a new syndrome called “Whatsapp Anxiety” - when birthday wishes start pouring in, Diwali greetings are floating in - my fear is, I hope I have not left out any one person that I need to wish!

I have people jumping out of groups and wanting to establish individual connect. They send individual messages - that means not individualised (not customised) but the same forwards that are already floating in public domain. I have received atleast 70% of videos / content atleast three times in a span of a few weeks and sometimes it goes on for a few years.

Not one of my whatsapp connects have a clue if I might have already seen these wonderful videos – neither do I when I forward. I also wonder, most of the link are "YouTube" links - what would happen if people in so many groups were to simply keep sending video links through whatsapp to each other.

Well, avid "YouTube" watchers may just get bombarded by too many links - and it is not that these links are very well curated - i.e. searched and selectively presented or are consistently on one or two subjects unless the group is well moderated.

It has surely taken the level of common knowledge on health, lifestyles, attitudes, economics, politics to a higher level… more information being shared. I still am not sure, all the groups which share messages on positive thinking, inclusion, being calm have focussed on bringing in the positive change at a personal or group level. The pictures are captivating, the messages are so beautiful – you just end up admiring them and not assimilating them – because you need to move on to the next message / next group.

Overdose of anything and unsolicited forwards sap into time and energy. Because there is a platform – I am not going to load it with my responses! If they were to charge per posting – I wonder how many posts I would make per day – is a question I am asking myself!

I think free information sometimes, makes us believe that now we are more informed, more wiser and hence when a real dialog takes place or a real life situation comes up, we may not even choose to hear as we believe we know it....yeah yeah... I know, know...

It has opened up a harmless way of communication for older people who can break geographical boundaries through their handphone. Thank you Whatsapp for that! But, my younger friends – can you help me manage my messages!

Whatsup with your wisdom - information is not equal to wisdom - for wisdom it is life’s experiences that make your richer.

With a Backberry phone in early 2000’s, parents and relatives then would say, don’t carry work home - anytime email. And fast email response was a sign of an engaged, efficient manager at work.

Now I have to tell my older friends and relatives at the cost of being the harbringer of unpleasant news - put the phone down and do some-other "handy" work. U are still having to view this through whatsapp and your phone!

The anxiety syndrome is after reading this piece, you may just not / ever write to me – will I be left out in the urban world led by social media or do I have to simply bear out all the messages and become a secretary to myself managing tons of messages. No, I don’t want to be a recluse - Can my silence on social media just be accepted as it is fine - I know you are there when I need you and I am there when you need me!

While I wait for a better version to emerge which helps me manage my social interactions better, let me manage them well by minimising my energy consumption on watching posts. In case of important messages, I know you will "sms" or call!

Yours affectionately and with warm regards,

Kanchana Manyam

9^th Feb 2018

Article for Chembur Fine Arts Carnatic Music Festival Souvenier - 2016

Bring Back music in your homes

Every musician acknowledges the role of the Rasika and many a reader of this article would be a Rasika of some degree.

Is developing Rasikatvam an individual initiative / responsibility or does collective development play an important role in building overall Rasikatvam? So are those individuals who are regular concert goers doing it because they independently felt the urge overnight  or were there some conducive factors in their childhood, youth and adulthood building  their love for Carnatic music?

How is “Rasikatvam” developed? The connoisseurs of the past five decades – what led to their knowledge and love for music and what could it take today to make present & future connoisseurs in our urban context?

The temptation to reside in history is huge while answering the above questions – however, I would like focus on things in our control which can build Rasikatvam in our own urban settings.

Be aware of the Rasika within you

Is connoisseur the only word that can define a Rasika? This description puts a great responsibility on the shoulder of such a Rasika. This brings us to the different degrees of Rasikatvam that need to be understood: 

-          Raskia Immersion Level 1 : The sprightly first timer(could be old, middle-aged or young) in a concert audience – wanting to see “explicit impact” – high voice quality, good pace, energy in a concert and so on. He /she may be exposed to multiple forms of entertainment and hence this is just one of the many types of concerts attended by him /her. The range of things occupying his/her mind could be from Jazz, to story-telling sessions interspersed with classical music.

-          Rasika Immersion Level 2: A reasonably regular concert goer – looking for common ragas (known to him), songs familiar to him / her (how the artiste can assess and judge these for a larger audience and cross-generational audience beats my imagination). May actually develop strong likes / dislikes based on styles he might have heard so far!

-          Rasika Immersion Level 3:  The experienced Rasika – Familiar with a range of kritis, composers, ragas, has heard 100’s of concerts over decades and so on.  He can guess the raga and the date and time when the same song was rendered in the 1970’s and by whom and so on.

The idea of indicating different immersion levels is to appreciate different audience groups / segments and see how “I” as a Rasika can graduate to next levels of immersion. Besides these there could be academically oriented people in the audience – that being a limited number, I don’t see a challenge with these intermingling with the most experienced form of Rasika.

The positive intermingling between all the above and more types of rasikas would be necessary in generating sustained interest. Sharing knowledge of ragas, building sense of judgment on the styles, bias towards slow or fast paced rendition is essential for the category 1 & 2 Rasikas to progress to the next level of immersion into music.

Immersion of the Rasika

Any field needs immersion – which is being in the frontal space of action of that field. For a cricket lover, watching innumerable matches builds his sense of judgement of the fitness of the player, the tricks of pitch reading and bowling. And mind you, there are many matches to watch which “exercise the cricket lover’s mind.”

The only open secret is listening to concerts over a period of time. With technology, geographical distances being covered faster, music interest should have spread faster across the country and the world than it probably has. The next section focuses specifically on how we can become the harbingers of music in our own homes & families and evolve to being a Level 3 Rasika.

Nature of Social Engagement

a)       Technology & Temple music can both build “Rasikatvam”

Economy and social interaction thrive around temples and that the temples became a nurturing ground for culture is much repeated historical fact.  Today, our social engagements and cultural affiliations are being built differently. Temples continue to form a part, however several other platforms for culture have arisen – and no one platform that has emerged so far is strong enough to bind us together as it was in the temple-culture driven days a few centuries ago.

Family as a platform to build interest also needs to be examined.

The famous Suprabhatam has disappeared in most family morning schedules. Is it difficult to develop a “music menu” for a week or a fortnight and play that – it could be a mix of shlokas, concert excerpts, a lec-dem, a mix of variety of songs? Some of the cultural TV channels are playing this role, however, they need to be viewedin light of enhancing knowledge around music as much as the spiritual or entertainment value (as the case may be) they provide.

Can we increase common time within families where music is heard (even if it means being played in the background) say while cooking, having a meal and so on or at least on weekly holidays.  Important point is collective hearing and the “more informative family member” supports others – sharing the names of ragas etc. It is a simple,occasional conversation that can bring music back in our daily lives.

Invariably the elders in the family would love to do this. They are handicapped with lack of knowledge on the various devices which often confuse the end-user - with innumerable wires and USB port settings etc.  Taking a one-time help from a tech-savvy person to connect your I-Pod / Mp3 player to the speaker can go a long way. Become the family Carnatic MJ (Music Jockey!). If the youngsters have the inclination towards music, but no time, pull in the elders who can support this goal.

Simplify your gadgets at home and use the least common denominator of technology which both the old and the young and operate with ease – which can flex between both “individual listening and collective listening”.

What is played and heard within families is one thing that is in our control – we must recognize this fact. Are we exercising that choice?

b)       Building and sharing your depth:  AIR, Hyderabad would have music sessions explaining ragas on the radio a few years ago. I have been a beneficiary of these knowledge sharing sessions sitting right here in Mumbai. I could listen to this even while playing or having my morning breakfast. And I was not a full-fledged student of music at that point in time. I probably became a student of music alongside these additional inputs. With the Radio fading out, and channels led by TRP ratings, there is a vacuum in this space of “communicating about music.”

I made an attempt to start a “ whatsapp culture-channel” which covers all our family members across geographies – with one song / one raga being explained. I am sure this will, even in a limited way, serve some purpose. As a Rasika, what is that one initiative you can take through which you can share your “Anubhava / Experiences” with others – you may have a creative answer.

However, depending on Whatsapp & Facebook messages will not help build in deep content – messages and videos will come and get deleted once your phone /device space is full. How many of the songs you heard on your phone messenger, do you recollect and repeatedly save and hear for months? How many of these have collective access to other members of your family? The aim is not to be the lone Rasika but the harbringer of music appreciation amongst your circle of family and friends.

c)        While in a concert – Connect with another Rasika

Silence is the golden rule for deep music lovers. However, sometimes, sharing the name of the raga or speciality of the song with a stranger sitting right next to you will only build collective knowledge. How many times, do you catch wise glances –saying,: “Hmm… Brindavan Saranga Pallavi, Taalam – Khanda Triputa in Mishra Gati”. The level 1 Rasika at this stage is completely bowled over. One could feel intimidated or one can inquisitively ask someone. Let there be no stranger to music in any concert hall! Let the new entrant (irrespective of age) find a good music companion in you!

No harm in asking or sharing the name of the raga, song, tala briefly and showing the tala if need be.  Can this be a responsibility that we as Rasikas fulfill?

To extend this approach further, music enthusiasts, can occasionally, take one new person to a concert or chamber concert – take the pains to explain the background of the music, the raga background, background of the song – the composer what the words could broadly mean and so on.

2. “What to listen to” is an essential decision that the Rasika makes

First time listeners to an Alapana find it abstract and get distracted very fast as compared to fast paced songs. Moving from “Explicit melody” to intrinsic-melody” is really the journey of a Rasika. In this journey, as you hear songs and Alapanas – you will be able to reel out names of kritis such as Chakkani Raja, Niravadhi.

My father would recognize every song of Tyagaraja in every lesser known raga, be it Vararagalaya-Chenchukamboji, Nirvadhisukhada-Ravichandrika, Anathudanu-Jingala, Nannu Kanna Talli-Kesari, Bangala and of course the other major ragas. This was not a book-based, syllabus driven knowledge. It was through sharing from co-rasikas over years. No time was wasted in criticizing styles, but in appreciating the best that every musician can offer –Nedunuri- Janaki Ramana (Kapi), Vararagalaya (GNB) and so on.

My aim in life was to out-do his list of rare ragas and identify ones he could not, which I can say, I have managed to some extent. What was an unsaid inner thought at that time, has led to a deeper interest later in life.

Ample “listening time” with “inquisitiveness” and “average memory” can build this Rasika repertoire.

Can you bring “listening excellence” in yourself and in others? Why can’t Kellvi Gynaanam play a role even today –can it be scaled up further? You could be a Kellvi Gyaanam Ambassador in your own circle.

Individual music listening devices deprives the entire family / social unit from sharing a common interest. Build your fortnightly music-menu with powerful yester-year singers like GNB with Chowdiah, Madurai Somu-Lalgudi, M L Vasanthakumari and intersperse them with contemporary artistes who have a distinct advantage of better recording quality. Throw in a variety of ragas and kritis in your menu.  Refresh your fortnightly “family music menu with new artistes, songs, alpanas and so on”.

Can we ensure that atleast 70% of our family members recognize Kalyani, Todi, Shankarabharaman, Kapi, Mohanam and a few songs in each of these ragas? Is this an achievable goal that we Rasika’s can have for ourselves?

Can you bring back music in your homes?  In summary, the Rasika can become the Music Jockey within his family.

Kanchana Manyam

Carnatic Music student &  performer based out of Mumbai

Feedback and reviews are welcome : Kanchana.manyam@gmail.com

6^th February 2016

Name Game: Urban Delights

Rhododendron, Chrysanthemums, Iris, Exotica, Hercules, Acropolis, Colosseum. To a generation, which need not read classics to be successful, it is important to decode this list. These are long, complicated words – some are names of flowers while some have roots in Greek and Latin mythology. And many urban residents reside in these words.

Not yet guessed, these are names one sees every Saturday in the property news supplements of leading newspapers. The obsession with something non-Indian is so strong especially in selling ideas to consumers. Every builder to build his reputation resorts to Greek and Latin names. The more complex the word, the more luxurious the apartment.

What is the qualification of a good address – in practical sense, it should be simple enough for a courier boy to relate to, abstract enough for relatives to ogle at you and comfortable enough to reach and reside.

If I was living in a Plato, Socrates or Aristotle, I would have just arrived in life. If, on the other hand, you were reading Plato, Socrates or Aristotle, you would truly have arrived in life – the mental plane we operate from would be a different one.

Socrates himself was in prison and had a difficult life – by our standards of adversity. Best works by best thinkers were always produced in prisons and dungeons. A dungeon for a home is also a welcome change if it espouses the right thoughts in our minds. If the Exotica or Rhododendron you live in offers you the freedom that Plato or Aristotle had, you are in the right address.

Real Estate regulation is Greek and Latin amongst other issues, afflicting both the industry and the consumer. A Colosseum which can collapse like an urban hut with one nail being drilled by your neighbor will not live upto its name.

Well thought out names, reflect the ethos of the society of its times. It instills pride, reminds us of a proud moment in history, or a common fervor / emotional connect. A name can be used to convey these. A name with shallow thought which no one understands but sounds intellectually gratifying is a cheap marketing gimmick. You expect your name to sell for you. Invest in it some thought.

Indian mythology, Indian history and Nature offer enough options. I was always enamoured by government quarters – names of rivers, mountains, Indian flowers. Of course, these have become as distant as Greco-Latin mythology for some of us – (next blog sometime later on laspse of culture & knowledge between generations). Standalone bungalows in old Mumbai called MatruChaaya or Pitruchaaya do not connote luxury. A “Sri Nivas , Maitri Bhavan, ” no longer evokes luxury. But these evoke a different feeling about home and being together.

A good name needs no special approval, no additional cost. Discover your real address by getting the name right and living upto the name! Better still – get real rhododendrons, daffodils, lilies and Chrysanthemums back in your life.

Choosing a profession - Be Professional About It

Making a “Professional Choice” about Professions

In ancient India, we were born into professions. If you were born in a family of carpenters, you would also in all probability be trained to be one, same with professions like cobblers, farmers, priests, masons, state rulers / kings and many others. Is there value in this approach to getting into a profession? The flip side of this approach has been debated – the merits & demerits of inheriting a career both for the individual and the society. With mankind constantly organizing them differently – their needs, the sociological topography have become drivers for their profession.

On the ancient approach to professions, I think there is merit in that process – simply because it is driven by knowledge. The skills, richness of past experience being easily accessible to all in the family, the skills, output would flourish more. For example, a musician who’s house resonates with music each day is surely likely to influence the child / member of that family with the knowledge being more easily accessible and available, so also with a politician, administrator, army personnel. Factors on aptitude, capability, interest & past experiences in that profession have more recently played an important role in eventually crafting one’s career. However, on the point of knowledge acquisition, there is a starter’s advantage. The base of the profession is knowledge which is central to the family / community. The focus was on excellence – different trades / skills flourished, expertise further honed. Exclusivity of knowledge is what a lot of institutions have challenged when they standardize education and make it more accessible to a larger community.

India is poised to gain from both schools of thought – only if we do not reject the old while accepting the new.

To me the deeper question is what should be the focus while choosing how to spend time whilst on this planet – to most of us in urban centres it is about being gainfully employed.

To me this is as much a philosophical question as much as a live human resource question in organizations.

Let us continue our journey on choice of professions.

Later in the 1940’s till the 1960’s, with the growth of cities and industrial hubs, jobs were linked to education. Education level was an indication of intelligence. A Masters degree in literature was as valuable as a Masters in Mathematics. Degrees in both disciplines were perceived as equally intelligent acquisitions. Social sciences, physical sciences were taught, appreciated and present in equal measure. Our grandparents who had a B.A degree in Maths or Economics were well respected for their qualification. Besides the degree, it also showcased their ability to focus on a subject, work hard and clear those exams then. (without coaching classes or model papers....the sheer power of reading multiple textbooks and spending time in libraries made them strong and also achievers in their era). An under-graduate convocation ceremony B.A, B.Sc would be celebrated in their hearts (without ostentation) and welcomed at home and in the neighbourhood with warmth and good regard for the degree earned.

Then, came the 1980’s where an undergraduate degree was no embellishment on your visiting card. The number of graduates rose, the number of jobs probably did not keep pace. You had the media (especially films) on how young educated youth did not get employment and took to wrong ways. Debates on education system being irrelevant to the job market became louder and prominent.

However, that was another inflection point – a shift from education for education’s sake to education for job / industry’s sake However, each time the society re-aligned skills to the ‘job market”, it is important to note that it fooled itself when it blamed the knowledge it acquired. For example, a skill called “typing” in urban centres and in corporates made one more valuable. Supplementing a graduate degree with a typing skill or some similar skill made it easier to find the job. You find a starker reflection of this later in the 1990’s as well – the countless computer courses equipping oneself for a job. This is possibly one point of inflection where the knowledge acquired got re-aligned to the job market with an absolutely different tool – totally at a tangent with the core degree or knowledge acquired. Where my core degree could be in another field but one upskilled oneself to gain employment – Degree in Chemical engg but an IT professional. And mass tendency was to move towards “successful” industries.

Creating Skill gaps in the society: Mass inference

Later in the 1990’s – it was the IT revolution which took its toll on most other disciplines. A job in IT meant being not merely a graduate but an engineering graduate. IT also meant great working environment, opportunity to earn more, opportunity to live in places across the globe (which had then and still have much higher standards of living). Therefore, somewhere the mass inference was good intelligence = being an engineer = getting a job in IT = having arrived in life, therefore it is a good knowledge to acquire. We rationalize when we see success – I call it success rationalisation. In the process, some also found their true love in IT and some more out of societal compulsions / situations.

What it did to other disciplines in those two decades is something we will look at in another write up since the present focus is on how we choose our profession. Since, skills can be acquired, increasingly the trend is to make choices in higher education based on future outcomes it begets – more so in terms of extent and probability of monetary gains.

From family inheritance of an occupation, to skill based education and societal inheritance (peer pressure), the third variable in our career decision (and the first for many now) is the return on investment. When we see education for its return on investments – the learning / seeking knowledge goals is more likely than not to be diluted. The electives are chosen on what will appeal most in the job market (mind plays its tricks on you it justifies that you are gaining knowledge – but the purpose is to justify returns).

With the IT boom hijacking most engineering colleges, did anyone pause to think what happened to the other streams – civil, marine, instrumental. (This has wider implications, when the country needs these skills, a decade or two later).

I see this decade long boom period for specific skill sets as small disrupters for knowledge seekers, a degree / subject becomes a favourite because you see big-gains in the job market. There is no problem in being the country’s favourite discipline as long it does not become the only connotation of success in that decade.

In this phase, the majority start equating money with intelligence – which is the biggest misgiving a professional can ever have. Profession is about knowledge. Not all knowledge lends itself to high pay. Knowledge lends itself to being at the core of the subject, understanding its nuances and dancing with its applications /observations. Money is only an incidental outcome, a bi-product depending on level of industrial activity and in no way should it be allowed to assess the worth of any stream of work at its absolute core level.

Today, as I even write this, choice of education / profession is largely determined by seeing outcomes which others have had – for example, being an engineer still pays off, doing an MBA pays off even better. If the information of who, which field, which job / institute earned the most was not available to all of us, we would make more well informed decisions.

The MBA course always existed – today it is not just about knowledge, it reflects your education status, your visibility as a professional, probability of higher paying jobs, faster growth etc.

If for a moment, we could hide the career paths & the compensation earned by your Engineer / MBA cousins and neighbours, would you have still chosen the path simply looking at their jobs just as a child says he loves choclates or would like to be a teacher! It is only as interesting if not less interesting, than the curator’s job in the museum, the social worker’s job in an NGO, the teacher’s job in a school. When new age students say they are pursuing a professional course for passion – my only response to them is teaching needs a lot of passion too! Then why not become a teacher. All I seek is love for one’s subject – only then can we allow knowledge to flourish seamlessly.

Few courses and professions which do not have a stream of applicants are more likely to have the “passionate few” who do it for the love of the subject / work without allowing monetary considerations interfere with their career decisions. Journalism, politics, teaching, sports, music, counseling, geologists, marine divers, coast guards are some instances of unique professions which always have a call beyond one’s job brief!

The list of Padma awardees is one to reckon with – it was not derived from the most sought after course across nations by top percentile students….the list comprised of artistes, sportsmen, people who influenced society (no designation can describe such jobs) – most of them in pursuits which nobody would have been able to pursue with a calculation of ROI on education costs. They have their soul in congruence with their knowledge..hence they perform naturally.

As increasing number of people aspiring for higher education, we fool ourselves – we think we are getting knowledge but we meander into making ourselves employable in a rather unpredictable world. If we stick to gaining knowledge, chances of survival in an unpredictable world is even more.

We also fool ourselves by saying that today there is greater choice – are we not limiting ourselves to certain degrees? Have we changed the basis of our choice. The determinants of choice limit our choices. The ROI comes in the way of truly healthy choice. Healthy choice is a luxury for few with high risk appetite or passion.

Question for Reflection for young in India would be – if all your basic needs were provided for, which education / knowledge would you have really chosen?”

Find your knowledge and live for the love of Knowledge!

Author

Ms. Kanchana Manyam

An Anti-thesis of Performance: DD revelation

In defense of passion - an Anti-Thesis of Performance

The DD revelation: Two decades and later

When there was no TV, we yearned for TV. When we got it, some accepted it with open arms, some fearfully like it was infringing on their morality / sensibility. Eventually all accepted it, not to say that the latter were humbled – they were probably right 15 years later for different reasons.

We were happy with one news channel for a few years, there were complaints and more complaints about one-sided news, no views, no choice in channels, boring programmes. The news readers were seen as static people reading out from a given script. The notion was DD never excelled because there was no competition. Thus, competition was brought in. We have seen competition at play for over two decades now.

When media opened up, new news channels enlivened news, it was views and news. However, to fend for themselves, they had to be saleable – that meant marketable to advertisers. They were perceived as being very performance oriented (unlike the government led channel). They had to report to investors, give them returns, or if not, atleast outbeat the next best news channels. TRP ratings mattered or most believed they mattered the most and put it on top of the  agenda. It became a performance metric. The program manager’s goal was to lead his channel to the top of the TRP rating.

At societal level

What  this did to the content, the audience, the messages we wanted to convey – or how was free market & free spirit interpreted – or was it limited by immediate goals to maximise channel following? Controversy just enough to raise viewership was welcome. TRP ratings or so called market forces decided the content – spicy reality shows – with little art or science as compared to what is available in the country rich as ours in culture. Talent shows redefined talent as stunt antics, incredible sagas and soap operas. In Western countries, juggling, doing the unbelievable is talent. In the East, we have many evolved arts – martial arts, music, dance, sculpture, - why should we be forced to believe stunts as talent.

Now let us examine what the pressure of competition and performance does? It brought in efficiency, it enhanced technology, presentations on news channels improved significantly. But news remained news and views remained views. Thus, what seems to be the right thing in the short run, need not necessary give the best variety to a nation in the long run – am sure this is true for organisations and individual. Quick performance gratification may be at the cost of true passion callings.

Did this also take away something from us? May be some tolerance: tolerance of viewing multiple languages in one channel, tolerance for the non-spicy stuff like Premchand Ki Kahani, tolerance for well-thought out scripts and stories. Stereo-typed ways to success was the safest way to reach top the TRP rating chart. Did the customer want that, was that the passion of the script writer, director or program in-charge. Mere business considerations “undo” and compromise larger sensibilities.

Did it also dilute the quality of family discussions? Did the last decade of telecast enhance quality of family life. A Surabhi or Tana Bana showcased the diversity of this country which a Slap Stick Comedy show cannot showcase. A healthy debate on key economic issues or political affairs by people who mattered were commonplace and still commonplace in DD channels. My Hindi is pretty decent thanks to hearing news readers reading beautifully in the national news channel.

Take off the investor pressure

May be we need to ask private channel producers, what is it that they would really like to deliver and do, if investors / owners needs were taken care of? Probably the “right thing to do” answers would emerge.

The national time given on media channels to enhancing / leveraging golden period of India is very low and youth and children, especially in metros have little to receive besides spice, jazz, colour and hyper-emotions. I see government channels solely bearing the Cross of social messages on toilets, primary health care centres, irrigation schemes and so on.

The problems of India’s farm sector and allied occupations, on which 60% of world’s second-most populous nation depends, are rarely the focal point of television news or debates. A dedicated news channel for farmers – interesting thought which never occured to many is now reality. No, ou don’t have to watch that channel. The point is who has the spot on “doing the right thing”.

In a country which can do with so much communication on schemes, facilities, reaching out, why is it that only the government news channels actually reach out to the poor. Besides encouraging candle light marches, and dealing with the urban few, private channels have much to be desired to be delivered on communication.

Did it give our children “weekly i.e. short lived” hoeros – based on box office hit item numbers? A singer who tops the chart today and not there tomorrow. Did it make artistes worry more about staying in the charts than working on their art?

Which child today can take pride in seeing award winning films, the national parade on Independence Day, commentary on leaders of India, history of India, travelogues on India (without showcasing best hotels and cruises). Today, I can follow a Malayalam film, a Bengali Film with the same zeal as one in Hindi – it gave me the confidence of understanding different cultures sitting at home – even if in a limited manner. That is the power of good media – take us into the different worlds around us.

Have TRP ratings or whatever measure of success there may be, limited our world to whatever they want to offer rather than what we could probably be seeing.

To unleash this power, passion is essential, performance can lag behind – if it is to do the right thing. If you have a passion , you would have strong beliefs on what you would like to deliver / perform. It will not be led by misleading metrics like TRP ratings which can alter the sensibilities of an entire generation.

What do we see in performance and passion led behaviours

Television was an example. One can extend this to one’s life and see how & when we stop doing the right things. When all consultants, managers, leaders talk about getting performance oriented, well may be that is the first step to collective excellence. But between the first step and the last step in this performance led journey, passion and good sensibilities are often orphaned cousins.

In building a performance culture, one tends to rely heavily on defined result areas. To make the business focused, the targets become the central point. Rewards are largely related to individual results. Hence, the individual starts focusing on the goal. Is that not how it should be? So we “do perform” many a times ignoring what may need obvious attention but focus on stated goals. That is passion compromised.

If you see it even a few decades down the history lane, you will realize that some simple things that could have made a difference just died. What are we killing when we are creating the new – this awareness is useful to have.

In my view an unnecessary by-product of getting performance oriented is creating competitive individuals. Everyone realizes that they need to keep themselves relevant to the organisation’s need. They align their behaviours and expectations to the defined performance standards and compete with each other to outperform. Was this the goal of the organisation? To manage performers becomes the new necessary evil in a corporate setting.

Whereas, if there was strong leadership, with a clear message on vision, people would align their passions together and not just performance. Performance would surely follow.

If passion is a more powerful force, your appraisal system cannot capture it – it in fact mutes it.

I am still bullish that there are a large number of people who can do the right thing.

It is time to catch up on DD – “doing the right things”. Quiz time on Sunday mornings versus KBC kind of show, the Saturday night sports quiz on the DD Tamil channel is powerful – it is the rural families who are listening to this. Urban youth, beware, are you truly in touch with reality or happily pandering to instant pleasure and reassuring yourself listening to 10-sec debates - “Do the right things”.

                                                                                                By Kanchana Manyam