Author: S Ramesh Shankar

Born in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India, I have been brought up in different parts of India. Graduate in chemistry and post graduate in personnel management and industrial relations. Have been a HR practitioner for 38 years in the industry and have experience in working in steel , automobiles, FMCG and engineering industry. Was head of HR for Siemens in South Asia based out of Mumbai till March 2019. Currently founded hrishti - joy forever, a social enterprise to give back to society and work as Chief Joy Officer.

My second innings – “Era of gratitude”

I have been a big fan of cricket right from my childhood. I find a lot of similarities between the game of cricket and life. If my first innings was about my career, my second innings is about my giving back to society.

All of us aspire to achieve our career dreams and goals. We strive our best to get there. We may partly or wholly be successful but we try our best. We desire for all the material things in the world and fantasise to get them. We may again get all we dream of or at least most of them in our life.

If I call my first innings as the “Era of gratification”, I would say my second innings should be an ” Era of gratitude”. God has been kind to me. I have achieved almost all I dreamt of in my career. My family and friends have supported me to be happy in life most of the time. Now it is time for me to give back to society.

I have bought all the material things in life I have wished for. Today I hardly crave for something and regret that I do not have it in my life. So, it is time to give back. It is time to express my gratitude in actions and not only in words. I assume I can do it in many ways.

The first thing I plan to do is to write more and share my experiences of life and living. This may help the next generations to think and reflect. It may help the youngsters not to make the mistakes I did. It may help them take the right decisions.

All my net earnings from the sale of my books (Sights & Insights and Life and Living )will be donated to a charity, which works zealously in “eradicating preventable blindness amongst children”. This way I will share more, learn more and at the same time give a little back to society.

I am also starting an organisation by the name “Hrishti” ( Means joy in Sanskrit). I will use this organisation as a platform to coach and mentor. I will try to mentor and coach business and HR leaders and again use all my net earnings to promote the same cause.

I also plan to work with start ups and NGOs to share my experience and learnings so that they can learn from my insights at work and life. This may help new start ups and NGOs to scale up and succeed in their chosen fields. At least, they will not repeat the same mistakes I did in my career.

I also want to teach in business schools, engineering colleges and universities. This way I can share my learnings and also enable young students to be industry ready. The gap between industry and academics needs to be bridged and I think people like me have a role to play in it.

I can also be a consultant to organisations and share my experiences in areas of their need. I may be able to give back to society in more ways than one. It is upto me to explore all possible ways to do it. After all when I needed help or support, there were thousands of people amongst family, friends and organisations, who did that for me. Now it is my turn.

Lastly, I am blessed to have enough of what I need to live happily for the rest of myself and my family. Hence, I commit that everything I do will contribute to society’s larger good.

Time to start my second innings in life post my retirement is after 31st March 2019. You can follow me on http:\\srameshshankar.com or connect with me at srameshshankar@yahoo.com or srameshshankar@gmail.com post this date. My mobile number will also remain the same as of today. I will continue to post every Friday even in the future.

S. Ramesh Shankar

Fights

IMG_2427 2
It is quite common to end up fighting with your siblings as a kid. We all have done it and the kids of tomorrow would do it. We feel it is fully justified when we did it but a bit immature when your neighbouring kids fight with each other. Fights could be over sharing a meal or even sillier an issue than that but it does happen. It’s fun to see children fight and then end up playing together as if nothing happened.

It is funny when adults fight. The most common occurrence is between spouses. All of us who are married would have experienced it umpteen times in our own lives. Most of the time when you look back on the issue on which you end up fighting, it is quite silly. But our ego does not allow us to give in. Each of us stand by our own stance and are not willing to compromise. Only time heals the issue or sometimes a mediator becomes necessary.

Another dimension of a fight is when teams on a play ground end up fighting with each other. Everyone agrees that sport is the best way to build comradeship but when two teams end up fighting on a play field, it is not sporty. It generally starts with an argument and sometimes ends up in a fist fight or even a riot on the field. Physical injuries apart from emotional distress are the only outcomes.

The worst dimension of a fight is when it happens between communities, societies or nations. It can be over sharing of waters of a common river flowing through them. It could be over boundaries and demarcation lines between them. It could be due to failed commitments. Whatever be the issue, it starts with a small flare up and then ends up almost like a battle or a war.

The interesting aspect in all types of fights is that “Ego” of individuals is the root cause. Kids do not like to give up their space and fight for their rights. Adults never want to compromise. They are willing to give up their values to protect their ego. Communities and nations fight with each other because of a ego conflict of their political leaders. Any fight could be nipped in the bud if we are willing to “let go” of our egos.

The best example is given by kids. While they end up fighting at the drop of a pin, they are also willing to forgive and forget at the shortest possible time. Adults as individuals have more inflated egos and hence take more time and efforts to give in. Teams suffer from clash of individual egos and team prestige. It takes time and effort from more than one individual in a team to resolve conflicts between them. Nations fight on prestige and false sense of supremacy. It takes months or even years to settle an international dispute between nations.

My learning is that fights may be inevitable. But, it may be a good idea to learn from children. While it may be normal to end up with a dispute, it may need a lot of guts to give up our ego. We need to give in and be willing to compromise and move on. There is no dispute on the earth, which cannot be resolved by sitting across the table and sorting out. We need to be willing to give up our egos as individuals, teams or communities.

Fights are quite common between spouses as seen in the photo above. We may not talk for days but need to learn to resolve it between us.

Another interesting learning can be from animals. I have never seen two animals fight and never give up. After the fight is over, they move on and are willing to live together again. The most common sight is that of street dogs. They may end up in a fight over food. But as soon as that is over, they end up playing with each other and move on in their life.

It is time to learn to give up our “Ego”

S Ramesh Shankar

Ways of nature

IMG_0928

Nature has its unique ways of surprising us every day. I would like to share a few natural phenomena in my life, which have always baffled me. I have been a student of science but have never understood any of these phenomenon and the root cause for them. It happens quite often and every time makes me believe that nature is beyond science and scientific theories.

The first phenomenon is what generically is called the biological clock. As a young student, I could never get up without the alarm clock ringing multiple times beside my bed. I even had to snooze it a few times before I actually got up. However nowadays, if I make up my mind to get up at a particular time in the morning since I have to catch up an early morning flight, I am woken up automatically a few minutes before I had planned to get up. I do keep the alarm as a precaution. But, nowadays I end up putting off the alarm before it takes off since I am already awake. I am told this is the biological clock although I have not yet understood the scientific basis for this.

The second phenomenon is referred to us “Telepathy”. Whenever you think of a close friend or relative, they either end up calling you immediately after that thought or at least text you. You are quite taken aback. When you narrate this phenomenon to them, they are not willing to believe you. In most cases, they tell that you may have dreamt about the same. This has happened to me many times in my life and I have no explanations.

The third phenomenon is that if you are honest and ethical in your life and work, you tend to get back anything you lose by accident. I have at least three experiences in my life where God has been kind to me and I have got back what I lost within minutes of the actual incident. The first incident was when I lost my wallet and Walkman in an auto at midnight at Jamshedpur in the early nineties. As soon as I realised I went back to the auto stand and could trace my auto and get back my valuables. The second instance I dropped my sling bag with my camera and calculator while I was riding a bike. This time again I got it back within half an hour as someone called my home number to inform me that they had found my bag. The third incident happened yesterday when I forgot my laptop bag with my iPad and headphones in the coffee shops of Chennai airport. Before I could call and check with anyone, I got a call from the police that they had found my bag at the coffee shop and I should return immediately and collect it. I think it pays to be honest and ethical in life and work always.

The fourth phenomenon is when you leave a place unplanned during a crisis. During the recent floods at Mumbai on 29th August 2017, I had not planned to go anywhere. However, at the last minute I was invited to inaugurate a HR conference at Manipal. That day Mumbai witnessed 310 mm of rainfall and the city was marooned. I returned the next day and city was already getting back to normalcy and there was sunshine in the evening. May be God took me away from Mumbai( the photo above) for a day to prevent me from any mishap on that fateful day.

Life is full of surprises. I am a born optimist and I have also seen that whenever I need some money urgently and did not have much in my bank account, I got some unexpected transfer to my account. It could be a dividend, which I did not expect at that time or someone returning some money they had taken during a crisis. It could be reward from my employer. God has ways of taking care of you when you need it most.

Although I am not recommending that we live life waiting for these unexpected things to happen to us. We need to slog it out and work hard to achieve our goals in life. I am only saying that if we lead a simple life, work hard and are honest in all our deeds to the best of our ability, then nature has its own ways of rewarding us. It is sometimes unbelievable but true.

Let every day be a new surprise for all of us.

S Ramesh Shankar

1st September 2017