Culture Change: The Catalyst is You!

Jibrael Jos,  Assistant Professor, Christ University, Bangalore

In the last 60 years India has come a long way, we can be inspired by the achievement of ISRO , the global footprint of the Indian IT sector, Konkan Railway, Golden Quadrilateral,  Delhi Metro,  Magic of IPL and many more.

On the other hand many people believe that Indian Politics is in a mess, they have given up, and every tax payer feels his money is going down the drain. The recent “India Against Corruption” campaigns goes to show the angst of the middle class.

If winning an election requires one to be corrupt. If surviving in politics requires slandering and lying. If the MLA had to spend in excess of a crore to win a seat, what would be running on his mind on the first day in office ….. yearning to work, praying to God to grant him the strength to serve the people … oh no!! ….  he is thinking how to get the money back. How to return the favours he took to win the seat in the first place. How to secure his future before the next election comes looming on him in five years time.

Same will become the case in every government contract and work done. If there is corruption in the bidding process, then the quality will suffer in the end product, ROI for tax payer’s money is dismally low.

If you can cheat, bribe or muscle your way into IIT/IIM, these institutions will become a farce and slowly lose its credibility, needless to say the output quality will steadily decline, placement goes down and in turn the number of applicants will fall drastically. Thankfully this does not happen.

So who will change, who can change, who wants to change. If change has to happen in the Indian Political System, then it has to happen from within. It is not impossible. Maybe the seasoned politicians can be the catalyst for the change. Maybe the second generation politician or maybe one of the woman politicians or maybe one of you who plans to stand for the election in 2014!!

If we keep saying all politicians are corrupt, that’s what they will become. On the other hand if we expect each one of them to serve the nation with honour, then the people’s positive thoughts will conspire to make it happen. Gandhiji’s strategy was to prod the goodness of men, trusting them, not giving up hope on even one of them. Let’s drop the sarcasm and judging mentality and let us restore our faith in the political system.

In the last 10 years I have seen hope in this country, there are many Chief Ministers who are bent on doing a good job. A CM in Delhi show commitment and zeal and Delhi transforms, a CM in Gujarat takes progressive action and the people rally behind him, a CM in Bihar brings around a change. 3 political parties, 1 common direction … FORWARD.

When an actor gets a film fare award, do the other actors appreciate his work or do they ridicule and talk behind his back, I strongly believe it is the former. So when will the Prime Minister of a political part A, compliment a Chief Minister of party B on a job well done and the whole parliament gives the appreciated CM a standing ovation. That is culture change.  When will a minister consult the ex-minister from the opposition party before finalising the finer points on a bill to be passed?

Culture Change is happening; there are IT companies where a wrong medical bill claim can cost an employee his job. There are millions of people all over India, who are proud of their work place. There are people working for lesser pollution and greener India. There are thousand running marathons. There are many a CSR initiatives impacting our society. There are millions hearts praying to God every day.

Each one of us needs to work on our competency and attitude to the world around us. If I am a teacher, I need to strive to be a better one. I need to inspire my students with my words, action and deeds. 

Imagine a culture change where the road is full of nice, fun loving and talented commuters. Every car is polished and without dents, every auto rickshaw is running on the meter, Buses ferrying a cheerful crowd, 40% people cycling to work. Friendly and proactive traffic cops.

Imagine a society where people are happy at home, happy at work and in the places in between. People come to love a Monday as much as a Friday. Every third person can play a musical instrument. Every second person loves to read. Every person loves to play a sport on a Sunday with her family and friends.

Imagine a nation where drinking water is free and runs in the tap 24 x 7, electricity, phone, TV in every home, flood is under control and drought is not an issue. Not one child dies due to malnutrition or lack of health care. Farmers do not commit suicide. People can travel in the middle of the night without fear.

You believe this all is not possible? Let us see the other side:

Konkan Railway Line is an engineering marvel. It is 760 kilometres long and was completed in 5 years time.  This line has 179 major bridges, 1819 minor ones and 300 road bridges. With 92 tunnels (83.6 km) out which there are 9 which are more than 2 kilometres long (the longest is 6.5 km). If we can build this in India then for India as a nation, impossible is nothing.

When Delhi Metro started running, we realise the power of dreams. In Raja Garden there is section of metro which goes on top of a busy flyover, from this height the view of the 3 malls is mesmerising. Delhi Metro is a few men’s vision, many a man’s sweat and the pride of the nation. ISRO’s Chandrayan mission, I still pinch myself and ask did we actually do that. When IPL started did anybody guess it would challenge other International Premier Leagues , will change the salary of cricketers, the direction of outsourcing and the definite increase in our in house cricketing skills.

If our children can work so hard to get into IIT, IIM or AIIMS what is Olympics. If our artist can practice and rehearse for 10-15 years how difficult is an Oscar. If our youth with their hard work can become an IAS officer, what all can they do for building a nation. If our engineers can get work in Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc then how difficult is a Nobel Prize.

If every child is nurtured, cared and raised with a self belief. Then in the near future a politician will change the democratic system from within. A few school teachers will alter the mindsets in education; A few lawyers will bring about legislation to transform the society.

Magic is there ready to happen.  When you wake up every morning …… BELIEVE .. that culture can change and the catalyst is your brother, your sister, your daughter, your son, your friend, your MLA, your CM, your PM, your boss, your colleague and most importantly YOU.

Recession

Context: Hope in the time of recession. Writing this article with a pen in one hand and a job in the other may seem a bit high winded but I will request you to read on ……..
(I would like to thank Pragya for giving the chance to contribute to the Comp Sc PG Department Newsletter)

Published in INFOBAHN, Christ University

I will survive

• Because challenges cannot break me
• Vultures of gloom cannot take me
• Fire cannot consume me,
• Rejection cannot drown me

Not only will I survive but

• Challenges will mold and let me grow roots
• Gloom will teach me to happy in little things and still bear fruits
• Fire will make me stronger
• Failure will make me strive higher

Because when going gets tough, the tough get tougher
Perspective

We only see the plane flying in the sky and we strive to be one. Little do we ponder as to how much time it waited patiently in the imagination of early man in the drawings of Da Vinci to the ideas of numerous others to the belief of Wright Brothers and finally to the opportunity of aviation fuel …….. that today a thing which more than 1000 kilogram can fly.

When we compare man’s achievement of flying a plane and the need to get a job to make ends meet we may come to perspective. When we were young we dreamt of greatness like being a sports star, artist or scientist and here we are at the very onset of our adult life and we are choking at the very thought of failing.

· We will need to be patient (and not expect a job 6 months before)

· We will need to be disciplined and diligent (to drop a 100 CV’s in different companies)+

· We will need to maintain a positive attitude (then only company number 101 will recruit us)

· We will need to make allowance in our expectation (salary, location, profile)

· We should manage our time well and make sure our fundamentals our strong and our key skills are honed

· We need to be realistic as we may need to work in an NGO,BPO or as a Salesman

And in spite of all this we still may not get a job THEN we need to have the wisdom to see that we are jobless not because of our own limitation.

Then and only then will we have the hope that when the time comes we will get our break. Any organization would like to recruit a mind who is patient, disciplined, flexible and has a good attitude. A mind with ability to learn on his own, realistic and wise. A person whose mind, heart and soul has been molded in the fire of challenges.

Success is not dependent on IQ, it needs a brain alright but it clearly needs the head its inside should be screwed on right. And trust a challenging situation like recession to get any fault we have collected in the early years’ right.

Just like recession is temporary slump, so was the ridiculous high salary some people got at boom time a temporary jump! So do not be lamenting on the spilt milk ….. the milk which you were about to buy with the money you were about to get from the lottery you were about to win.
Recession 2001

In 2001 a whopping 2.7 million jobs were lost.

A good friend of mine was fresh out of college in that year. He dropped more than a hundred CV’s in Electronic City, ITPL, Koramangala and Jayanagar. His first salary was a paltry Rs 1500. He worked extra long working hours for more than a year. Today he has a very good pay package but does he look back and curse those time, no my friends he looks at it with nostalgia. My NCERT scholarship holding sister who lost her job in recession today earns 3 times her otherwise would be salary. CFA and MBA are feathers in her cap she added (apart from the MTech she already had before recession).

These are not exceptions as I do not know a single person who did not have a job in 2001 and who still does not have a job
Growing Roots

The biggest challenges many of the IT Companies have when they recruit from campus is that they need to arrange a training program to assimilate the new joinees. This assimilation program ideally just needs to cover the organization culture, processes and best practices. But this is far from what it is today in India. Campus program are quiet extensive. A lot of time is spent teaching programming basics, SQL and some key fundamentals. Some organizations spend considerable time also on behavioral skills.

It is the prime responsibility of each job seeker to be honing their skills, not just to clear the interview and get a job but to do well on the job. So if challenges come grow your roots deep and spread them far. Bamboo is one of the fastest growing grass at a tremendous rate of 2 feet a day but what many people do not know is that the first 4 years it does not show any outward sign of growth as it spreading its rhizome system of roots deep and wide.

So aspire to be a bamboo in the tough times ahead and success will find you. Do not become like seeds caged up in a box in a cozy kitchen but bury yourself and build your roots so that one day you may become a mighty tree.

Conclusion

O Recession, I am like champagne,

Shaking me would be in vain

I WILL shoot up without disdain

Footnotes

· Why Aviation Fuel: Leonardo Da Vince was living 500 yeas ago, pedaling up the hill is tough enough taking off like a plane !

· Heaviest plane AN225 loading capacity is around 500,000 kgs !

· 2.7 million jobs were lost according to one study in the recession of 2001

· “Mighty Oak tree” and “tough get tougher” are not my original quotes

· Check out Bamboo on Wiki, some have grown at 4 feet a day