Time

Time is “timeless” indeed. What has gone by we could not control, what is stored in the future for us ,is unknown. We can neither control our time ,nor the time of others.

We can plan for our time ,but what may happen ,may not be predictable. Some times ,things go as we have planned and at other times, things go astray. We can neither blame time nor ourselves for it. We may leave home ,two hours in advance ,to catch a train and still may miss it, although the station is just a few kilometers away.

At other times, we may be sure that we may miss the flight ,since we arrived late at the airport and there were heavy queues but, the departure of our flight could get rescheduled ,for reasons we may never know.

Life is no different. We need to accept life and its events ,as it happens to us. This does not mean, we do not plan for our life and work hard ,to achieve our goals. But, what we need to realise is that, some things may be in our control but many others ,may be beyond our zone of influence.

Our ability to accept things as they evolve ,and adapt ourselves to weave our life ,around the uncertainties of life ,makes it worthwhile to live and enjoy life. If we keep cribbing about why something happened or did not happen, we may miss the bus ,as the bus in our life ,does not stop at our place ,forever. It keeps moving and we need to catch it, when it arrives ,or it may not arrive again ,in our lifetime.

We may keep wondering about why something happened in the past and forget to live in the present moment. We may sometimes worry about the future, which we can never be sure of and waste our time, instead of enjoying the present.

Life has to enjoyed everyday ,as if ,today is our last day on earth. Every moment is precious and does not come back. Have we ever seen the clock running backwards ? No moment in life ,comes back to us and hence ,we need to make the best use ,of every second in our life ,today.

It is almost like us sitting in a stationary train ,in the station. When the adjacent train moves, we feel as if we are moving ,in the opposite direction. The reality is that ,we are still ,but the relative moment, makes us feel that way. In life also ,if we remain static, life does not move ,but when we see others progressing, we feel left behind. This is more because, they are working hard, while we may be relaxing and being static at the same place ,without putting any efforts.

Another interesting sight ,is the trees at a distance ,when you are viewing them ,from a moving train. We all know ,that the trees at the distance are rooted in their places and we are moving ,but it looks as if the trees at a distance are moving ,along with us. It is also like the moon seems to be travelling with you, when you are driving on a full moon night. The reality is otherwise.

We need to understand ,the value of time and its reality. We need to realise that ,time does not discriminate, for anyone in life. All of us have the same time in a day, month or a year. Some of us become more successful than others, not because others had limited time, but because we made the best use of time available to us.

Time to realise that time is indeed timeless, non-discriminatory and relative ,for all of us.

S Ramesh Shankar

25th Feb 2025

Educational qualifications vis a vis career

In India and especially in the middle class, there is a lot of emphasis on academic accomplishments. Most parents want their children to study in the best schools and academic institutions and evolve as a professional. Till sometime back, many parents wanted their children to become doctors or engineers, as they could not imagine any other profession, which could make their kids successful.

I would like to dwell on how educational qualifications impact our careers. Having worked in the corporate sector in reputed organisations, I can state with experience ,that our educational qualifications ,can only take us to the gates of an organisation.

Once you enter the precincts of any organisation, nobody remembers where you studied from and what your qualifications are. We are assessed and recognised ,for the value we bring to the table, in whatever function we work.

The best of academic institutions can enable you to be shortlisted and interviewed in an organisation and you may be even get selected. But if we do not add value and behave well, we may not perform, commensurate to the qualifications we hold ,from the best institutions.

I am not stating here ,that one need not pursue their academic qualifications from the best academic institutions in India or abroad. What I am saying is that just acquiring a qualification ,is not good enough for us to be successful in our careers or even in our lives.

Having worked in the Human Resources function and been part of thousands of performance appraisals in my career ,I can authentically state ,that the best academic qualifications, may not take us far ,unless we display exemplary behaviour, are willing to be a learner for life and grounded in all our actions.

The best professionals I have met in my life ,have these in common. They may or may not have passed out from the most reputed academic institutions ,but they are life long learners, great team players and humility personified.

I used to jokingly state to my employees ,that we all need to leave our academic qualifications ,at the entry gate of the organisation, we work for. What we need to focus while we are at work ,is our performance, value addition and most importantly our behaviour towards colleagues, customers and suppliers cutting across hierarchies.

Most employees love to work with inspiring leaders and not necessarily with those, who have graduated from top notch universities. This is because ,they may not even know where their leaders have studied from. What they experience everyday in their work life ,is the interactions of their leaders with them and how they treat them.

Let me reiterate ,what I said earlier. Kindly do not get me wrong. All of us need to try our best ,to get into the most prestigious academic institutions ,in our country. But what I am stating is that the best educational qualifications are not enough ,to be highly successful in our careers. Our behaviour on and off the workplace ,makes all the difference.

Let us grow in our careers through our behaviour rather than depend on our qualifications alone.

S Ramesh Shankar

5th Feb 2025

Mistaken Orders

The other day, I was reading a story about a restaurant in Japan, where they employed ,only dementia patients. The name of the restaurant is “Mistaken orders”. They clarify to their customers upfront ,that sometimes they may order something but get something else. They should not get perturbed by this action but rather appreciate, those who live with family members or friends ,suffering from dementia.

This was a very insightful story for me. I realised that it could be put to practice in our lives too. We react or sometimes over react, for some behaviour or incident ,without understanding why that individual behaved that way or that incident happened. We all are human and react this way or the other sometimes. But, it may be a good idea to reflect on this story and change the way we live.

This could happen in the family, society or work place. We may get disturbed by the action of an individual or their behaviour in a particular situation. We may react in-appropriately ,since we do not understand ,the context of the behaviour or the action.

Let us imagine how our life would be, if we learn from the idea of “Mistaken orders” restaurant. We need to remind ourselves every day that the people around us ,may be suffering from dementia or some other issue. Dementia here is just symptomatic. We really do not understand the reasons, for their behaviour.

I was told that the customers to this restaurant ,come prepared to eat any food they get. They are not agitated by the mistaken orders delivered to them by the staff ,as they are fully aware that people suffering from dementia ,do keep forgetting frequently and they not do it deliberately.

It may not be easy to practise this idea. But may be worth a try. Our life is conditioned by our behaviour ,every day. We react based on what we see and hear around us. We may not have the time to understand, why an individual behaves or reacts ,in a particular way. But, if we are able to invest some time in this aspect, our life could be positively different. We may behave like the customers of the “Mistaken orders” restaurant in our every day life ,with most people around us.

Another interesting aspect of life is that ,we get what we give. If we give a smile, we get a smile back. If we frown, people shout back at us. If we understand people better, they probably would understand us better too.

We all are running short of time every day. We do not have time to eat our break fast nor do our daily chores. Then how do we find time to understand people around us. Yes, this may be true. But, we do invest time in things, which are important to us. Building and sustaining relationships, is critical to life. It is like maintaining good health in our life. So, it may be worth investing.

Let us rediscover our life from today.

S Ramesh Shankar

18th March 2025