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.

The last journey


I had gone for my morning walk today as I do everyday.  I go to a beautiful park opposite to my house and it is along the Arabian Sea.  The greenery of the park and the sound of the morning waves from the sea apart from the chirping birds make my day fresh and wonderful.  So, today was no exception to this great start to my day.  However, as I was making my final round I witnessed an unusual incident.

I saw a dog pulling a dead crow, which had died on the sea shore and pulling it to a grass lawn to have it as her morning breakfast.  What was astonishing was to see a cluster of crows in the sky ,following the dog screaming and announcing the death of the crow.  While the dog was least impacted by the shrieking of the crows above her, it really moved me as to how the crows were mourning for the last journey of one of their siblings.  They seem to be hurt that it died on the sea shore and had become fodder for the dog.

While this may be a stray incident, it stirred the emotions in me.  I have always been told from my childhood that it is ok if you do not visit a friend or a relative on the good news of the birth of a child in their family.  This is because you could always do so sometime in the future.  But, if you come to know the sad demise of a friend or relative and if you are in town, you should never miss the last journey of the person who has died.  This is because you will never be able to see that person again and it will his last journey on earth till the graveyard.

I am not sure how many of us realize this as human beings.  We are so caught up with our daily chores that we hardly have the time for our family or friends to share their joy or sorrow.  We neither have the time nor the inclination to visit anyone.  The herd of crows reminded me of how even birds and animals are more human than us.  They gathered together and mourned the death of another crow and screamed down to the dog to spare the dead crow alone.  Why cannot we as human beings learn from birds and animals if we are not able to learn it ourselves ?

The lesson for me today was that we need to find time for our beloved ones.  It could be to celebrate together a joyous occasion.  It could be to mourn the death of a near or dear one.  Especially in the latter case, life does not give us a second chance.  If we as human beings  think we are superior to animals and birds our behaviour has to prove it.  The crows made me realize that may be we still have a long way to go.

It is time to wake up.  It is time to find time for others.  How long will we justify our lack of etiquette to lack of time ?  How long will we run the rat race ? .  We may  realize that there is nobody to run the race with us anymore and then it may be too late.  It is time to realize and wake up now.  Let us resolve to ourselves that even if we do not have time to share joy, let us ensure that we will be around to share the sorrow of others always.

If crows can show humanity, I have not doubt, humans also can.  It is only our ability to reflect and resolve.  It is our ability to prioritise and act on our resolve.  If we think we can, we will.  The time to start is today.

Let us just do it.

S Ramesh Shankar

Terrorism 


We see innocent human beings – women, men and children of all religions, caste and communities being killed by a phenomenon called terrrorism.
While everyone condemns terrorism in all its forms, there are some countries and states, which directly or indirectly support it.

It is time for all countries of the world to unite and fight and eliminate terrorism. How can any human being kill other human beings in the name of religion or ideology and be proud of it ?

If a family loses a member, it is tragedy. It does not matter which religion, caste or community they belong. We have become apathetic to such incidents. It becomes statistic when reported till you are impacted personally by it.

Every day a human being from the defence forces or the para military forces is killed. This human being belongs to a family and if we put ourselves as a member of that family we can realize the extent of damage and the depth of grief of that family.

Politicians and members of the civil society organise protests more to gain media coverage and cheap publicity. They condemn killing of human beings of a particular religion or caste and make it a public issue. This then gets debated in TV channels as if these debates and protests can help the bereaved family get back their loved ones.

It is time to boycott people who protest for the sake of protest and for the sake of publicity. We need to condemn any killing anywhere in the world and fight unitedly against it.

In my view terrorism has no religion. It has no humanity. It has no principles and it has no morals. It has nothing to do with secularism or democracy. It is inhuman and let us not eulogise it.  

Let us together get to the root cause of terrorism and help our children and younger generations of the future to live in a peaceful world, where everyone loves each other irrespective of religion, caste, creed or nationality.

Terrorism leaves behind families homeless and headless like the remains of a dead honey bee comb(as in the photo above), which once was home to hundreds of bees.

Let us fight for humanity and condemn killing of every human being wherever and whenever it happens and pray for their families. Let us not be selective in criticism and project ourselves as the saviours of humanity, only when it suits us and helps us become TV stars by making arrogant and irresponsible statements to get cheap publicity.

Let us preserve and promote love and humanity in the world.

S Ramesh Shankar

Friends forever

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One is born with relatives but we make friends in life.  We do not have a choice to choose our family or relatives but we do have an option to choose friends and so we do.  My experience in life has taught me so far that relatives are generally less reliable than friends.  I do not want to generalise that all relatives are non dependable or all friends are dependable.  After all both relatives and friends are humans and they are bound to err like all of us.

I was born in a lower middle class family and my father was a central government employee.  While I was born in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India, I have grown up in different parts of the country.    I have had the privilege of living in east, north, south and west of India.  Even as a child I have seen that family friends were more supportive than relatives.  The true test of reliability is not when you are doing well but when you are in distress.

I have experienced in many such occasions in life when I have gone through a bad patch.  Way back in the early eighties, I lost my mother and then within two years my father was on the death bed with a kidney failure.  It was  mostly friends who supported me financially and emotionally rather than relatives.  As I said earlier, there were some close relatives who helped me too but the selfless help came from friends.

Today I remembered these friends because I was in Bhubaneswar to attend the marriage of a friend’s daughter.  I started my career in a steel plant and grew up with a group of young friends from different states of India.  Although we belong to different states and speak different local languages, we have been together and in touch for more than three decades.  We have not met many times during the course of these thirty years but something somewhere strikes a chord between us even today.  We do not miss an opportunity to attend any marriage or other social functions in each others’ families.

As regards relatives, they are inherited in a way with your family.  They are with you and support you in ways they can.  However, as you grow up and separate they get into their own world.  If you do well in life , they still connect with you and seek your help too.  However, if you are in distress, many of them may forget you or feign ignorance in times of need.  As I stated earlier, it is not fair to state that all relatives are like that.  Some of them have been of great support to me in my life and I will ever be grateful to them.

I recently attended the alumni meetings of the graduation classmates and post graduation mates.  Both of them were nostalgic and we could relate to each other as if we had just passed out of college.  The bohenomy was symptomatic of our unconditional relationship.  We shared our joys and sorrows and when in need everyone was eager to help each other.

I would just like to emphasise that friends are forever and we need to nurture and cherish those relationships.  Relatives are inherited and we need to be in touch and keep a respectful relationship.  If they behave like friends, then we are lucky but  if they don’t we should never regret.  After all some friends also may behave in abnormal ways after being in touch with you for years.

As in the photo above, three of us are friends for almost four decades now.

Let friendships last forever

S Ramesh Shankar