Footprints on the Mountainside

In every organization, we have the odd success story of a person who rose through the ranks like a comet. As a trainer, the most popular question we get asked is how people can be made to perform at full potential.

Unfortunately, there is no answer that can be an instant solution - do this, and every person in your organization will be a genius. It just doesn’t exist.

So what is it that these stars have that others don’t?

For one, they have passion. When they find something they want, they go for it. When they find something they don’t like, they give everything in them to change it. Is it any wonder that they are on the pulse of whatever it is that they handle? They either are in love with it, or have created it, or know it in and out in their efforts to cause a change.

Another thing these people have is self-driven ambition. Being better than the next employee is irrelevant. What they are really competing with is their vision of how they could be at full potential.

How can this be brought into training? A simple answer would be - “It can’t”. However, that is not true either. People change. I believe that this is one shift that could at the most be inspired by someone, but the urge to walk the road is from the person walking it. It is not even a decision that a person can make, but a need inside. All the training in the world can only create some dream of this. Whether the dream fuels action when the person is on his own is what separates the stars from the masses.

Where could this journey begin? Right here. Right now. There is no rocket science to it. All it takes is being aware of yourself. Being aware of where you excel, what could be better, asking for feedback and absorbing it.

The most difficult thing in this journey is probably recognizing failure. Most corporate employees today have an inherent phobia of failure. When a situation doesn’t work as expected, a blame game follows. The brief was inadequate, time fell short, so-and-so goofed up, we didn’t have enough people…. and so on. Yet, there are also stories filled with pride about old successes where the brief called for guesswork and tarot cards, the project was due “yesterday”, everything that could go wrong went wrong, resources were short…… but the job was done. There is a reluctance to come out and say “the job was not done”, even when it wasn’t, where the simple statement gets replaced by miles of explanations, excuses and jargon, till the original subject of conversation is safely forgotten. This is an option - a comfortable one, but it doesn’t work for one who wishes to be a self-coched climber, because until you know what to fix, there is no “climbing” possible.

A difficult but necessary move is to strip the sugar coating and speak of the results as they are. Explanations have a valid place in the reflection and planning for changes - NOT in measuring results.

Another difficulty is in relating with people. The more we want something, the easier it gets to forget that others around us have things they care about too. One possibility is to step on toes, but unless you don’t need any relationship with them (work or personal), its going to come right back and step on yours. It is a conscious choice to explore how things different people want could fit in together and work out in a way that helps everyone. And guess what, the person to initiate this would be called a leader, no?

And so on. Its really about being aware and fixing what doesn’t work, and experimenting and taking risks and owning the results. Everyone goofs up. Its the risks that work that make you a star!

Its Ganesh Chaturthi time. This is big happenings near Mumbai and Pune. Everybody and his cousin will install a Ganesh idol in their home on Ganesh Chaturthi and keep it in their homes for worship for durations varying from a day and a half to 21 days. At the end of whatever duration has been selected, the idols are immersed into the sea/river/other water bodies.

It is a time of great worship and cultural value. Hindus believe it to be an honour (to themselves?) to host the God in their home. Even if you don’t follow this practice, you can’t remain unaffected. You will be invited to go and pay your respects in the homes of those you know. A time of meeting people and great joy.

However, there is the dark side of the Ganpati celebrations. The dark side is the utter litter of broken, half dissolved idols marring beaches and shores of all water bodies after these celebrations are done. There is a great pride in creating huge idols, which are invariably of plaster of paris or fibreglass as opposed to the traditional clay idols, which don’t even dissolve away, like they are supposed to.

This Ganesh Chaturthi, I’d like my readers to take the initiative in spreading the word about the damage done to our natural resources through this practice. It is also completely disrespectful to the God you love for so many days in your home to be lying around like garbage once you’re done with your worship.

I have several suggestions I would like to make to Hindus who follow this practice, and I hope they realize that Hinduism is an evolving religion, and knowledge and understanding shaping practices is highly respected, and make an attempt to shift some of the practices to make our environment better. These are inspired by today’s visits to people we respect highly, and you will see why.

This is an idol in the home of Mr Mahesh Atale - an outstanding mallakhamb coach (he was my husband’s coach, when Raka used to perform mallakhamb) and a man with a social conscience. This idol is made of paper mache and painted with eco-friendly paint. When immersed in water, it will dissolve completely within a day - normally, within 8-10 hours. Still, he immerses it in a bucket of water at home.

Another friend and old time guide/teacher is Dr. Milind Chitley. A doctor who is also a mountaineer and Raka’s first employer in the outdoors. Raka worked with him for 8 years and learnt much of what he knows about operating programmes from him. Dokya, as he is fondly called, was not at home, but his parents were, and we had come to pay our respects to the decorated big boss anyway, and he was there.

Dockya has an idol made of silver. It is also immersed in a bucket of water and used again next year. Of course, it doesn’t dissolve, but that is obviously not what we want with a silver idol

A friend of ours, Nikhil Mhapankar, was among those we couldn’t visit due to a shortage of time. He is planning an idol of “panch dhatu”, which is five metals - gold, silver, copper, tin and lead. He is planning to recycle some ancestral silver and gold for this to add sentimental value.

This is an idol in the home of Mr Shrikant Warkhedi - the son of respected sculptor Gururaj Warkhedi and my husband’s maternal uncle. Shrikant mama doesn’t do much sculpting, but makes the Ganesha idol himself without fail each year, like his father used to. This idol is created and used for worship while it is wet. No paints of any kind are used at all, and it is immersed in a bucket of water at home at the end of celebrations and the clay is reused for the next year’s idol.

There are other things people do as well. A chawl in the town area uses an intricate water colour painting on a wall, which is simply washed away. Other practices include reusing fiberglass idols after repainting them, keeping a stone shaped in a way the worshiper finds symbolic of lord Ganesha, and drawing the shape with grain, which is later donated.

Whatever the method, it is different, expressive of caring for the environment and love for the God. I request all readers to promote such ideas among everyone they can. Each year, we have lakhs of idols littering water bodies and devastating the ecology with lead paint and plaster of paris. Every person we can convert toward the protection of God’s creation while engaged in worship is one idol less lying demeaningly on the shore.

I particularly request large public celebrations to adopt eco-friendly practices and become role models for upcoming celebrations. Do it for God’s sake, or environment’s sake, but do it.

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Keep an eye on what you are driving, and make sure you are keeping its pollution levels law. It is required by law, but its surprising how many people don’t really care.

Avoid using vehicles for going around the corner. The walk will do you good.

Use shared vehicles and public transport where possible. Use eco friendly fuels.

Keep an eye on what you are using. Many chemical products are harmful for the environment. Find out the effects of chemicals you use, and explore options that help you do your thing with minimum damage. Its probably healthier for you too.

Avoid cooking fires. Avoid campfires. Avoid all unnecessary smoke.

Don’t sit on the horn when traffic comes to a standstill. Your horn cannot physically move cars along. If it’s a jam, it’s a jam. If it looks like its going to take a while, switch off your engine, and have patience. Blaring horns only make a bad situation unbearable. Yeah call me fussy. I call it noise pollution.

This goes for other noise pollution stuff too. Bizarre loud celebrations in the middle of the night, loudspeakers, etc. near hospitals is a baaaaad thing to do.

That’s a big luxury and need today. In Mumbai, a powercut is rare, but in many other parts of India, uninterrupted electric supply is rare. Again, it is a matter of using what we have wisely.

Switch off lights, fans, and anything that consumes electricity when not in use. Decrease your bills by exploring solar power. Switch to lower consumption versions of appliances. Switch off all things not needed when leaving home. These measures will help extend the utility of existing power resources as well as save money on electricity bills.

When cooking, use gas wisely. A flame that extends beyond the base of that utensil is gas going waste and only charring food on the sides of the utensil. Turn it lower and save yourself some cleaning effort while you’re at it.

Keep your ingredients ready or easily accessible while cooking, so that you don’t cook food unnecessarily longer, consuming more fuel and making the food less tasty. Use pressure cookers to speed up cooking and save fuel too.

Solar cookers are great, if you live in a place where you have sunlight, and an area where you can place your cooker safely. Food cooks slowly, retains maximum nutrients, utensils are extremely easy to clean, and no bills of any sort. Sunlight is free  Solar cookers are extremely easy and inexpensive to make.