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.

Something good in everybody


There is something good in everybody around us.  We spend most of our time finding faults with others.  It is easier to find fault than to find the goodness in others.  Let us try to change the way we look at others.  If we spend a little time everyday to observe and admire one good quality in someone in our life, our life may be different.  We may not only learn that good quality and we can try to imbibe it but also make the other person happier that day.

While many of us are comfortable in sharing what we don’t like in others easily, we find it difficult to praise people in front of them.  Next , we are not very keen to look at the positives of others.  This could be a cultural issue.  But, after all each of us have a responsibility to change the culture of the organisation.  After all, we have known many brilliant individuals, who have changed the way society thinks on a particular subject.  We can become one of them if we start thinking this way.

We could put a black nail on a white wall and ask people around us what do they see on the wall.  Most people will point out the black nail and not see the beautiful white wall all around the nail.  Similarly, in real life, we all see the negatives of others easily and do not notice the positives of the same people.  May be it is time to rewind the clock and see others from a positive prism.

I have tried a small experiment in some of my training programmes.  This is not something I invented but I learnt from late Kathy Dannemiller, one of the inventors of large scale interactive processes way back in 1995. You could end a training programme by asking each participant to observe, note down one positive quality about his/her neighbour in the class during the course of that training .  Then, they could look at the eyes of his/her neighbour and share the positive quality they have observed in them.  You can see the joy in their eyes.

The power of positivity in life is endless.  You have to experience the appreciation to believe this.  If each of us try to recall when was the last time, someone appreciated something positive in us, it may be a long time since it happened.  On the other hand, if you want to recall when someone criticised you, you may recall immediately.  It is in our psyche to look at the gaps and holes in others always.

Let us resolve to ourself that we will meet every family member every day and share one positive quality we like in them that day.  Similarly, we can do with our office colleagues.  I can assure you that life will be very different. It will be full of energy and possibilities.  We will always have options for everything in life and there will be hordes of people around us, who will be keen to contribute to our success.

Like in the photo above, we met the senior union representatives of our global parent in Germany during their recent visit to India and had so much to learn from them within a week’s interaction with them.

Can we promise to admire the positivity in others from today ?  

S Ramesh Shankar

The Past, Present & Future


It is said the past is history and the future is mystery.  We do not know what the present holds for us.  In the cycle of life, the future becomes present even before we realise it and the past whizzes behind us and becomes the present.  If we look at ourselves and reflect on our own life we realise that the past, present and future is a journey.

We look at the past and rejoice on the perfect moments and look at the future with hope and anticipation.  The present is ephemeral.  We live it many a time without realising how it slips betweeen our hands.  The past can be recollected but the future cannot be predicted.  The present is journey to be lived to be realised.  Historians can comment on the past and the Futurolosist can anticipate the future but the present is reclusive of any predictions.

If we reflect in our own life, we realise that we cherish the past and anticipate the future.  Many a time we recall our childhood and re live the moments of happiness.  We plan for the future but realise it is unpredictable.  We live in the present many a time by celebrating the past or worrying about the future.  Why do we not celebrate the present as we pass through it every day ?

The future becomes the present even before we know it.  While we spend a lot of a time in looking back at the past and rejoicing it, we do not plan enough for the future.  This results in the future rushing into the present for us.  Ideally, we could enjoy the past but if we are able to anticipate and prepare for the future, the present becomes fun.

Lets look at our own past, present and future.  We share stories of our past with kids.  We share successes and enviable stories of accomplishments in academics, sports and cultural activities.  We tend to be oblivious of the future and many a time take it for granted till some challenge beseeches us.  Thus the present becomes insurmountable and we do not enjoy it.

It may be easy to celebrate the past but difficult to anticipate the future.  Some religious leaders tell us that the past and the future is fateful.  In my view, everything is in our hands.  If we live life, the way we want to and put in our best foot forward, the past evolves into the present and paves the way for the future.  Neither, the past is unpredictable nor the future is unimaginable.

My life mantra has to been to never regret the past nor worry about the future.  We need to learn to live in the present.  We cannot re write the past nor fully predict the future.  But the present is in our grip.  We tend to live the present by looking at the past or worrying about the future.  This drains our energy and thus we are not able to celebrate our every day life.

Like in the photo above, we need to live in the present and learn from the children around us.

Let us celebrate the past, live the present and plan for the future.

S Ramesh Shankar

Personality versus Character


One of my young talented and aspiring colleague once asked me as to “how do we build our social image” ?  He requested me to write about it.  I was wondering where to begin and where to end.  But thanks to the social media today, I got a forward of a beautiful quote, which reads as ” Personality is what we do when everyone is watching” and “Character is what we do when nobody is watching”.  This gave me an insight to write on this subject.

All of us have two faces in life.  We have an external face, which we show to the world and we have an inner face, which we guard inside us.  We try our best to guard the internal face so that it is visible only to our near and dear ones. The external face is public and can be seen by the world.  This duality in our life defines our personality.  So, our personality is something which everyone watches and our character is something, which is intrinsic. It manifests itself during adversities in our life.

Let us start from school.  We want to be seen as the best behaved student, good in academics and sports.  We want to be the best behaved child in front of our teachers and our parents.  We want the world to talk about us all the time.  But, how do we behave when nobody watches us.  If we face a tempting situation do we fall prey to the temptation.  Many of us may have stolen cash from our parents wallet to fulfill our unfulfilled desires due to lack of adequate pocket money.  Would we do it in front of our parents.  

This nature continues in our college days.  We grow up in age but less in maturity.  We continue to impress the people whom we want to in our life.  But our inner self is always a bit different than our outer self.  We zealously guard our inner image to ourselves.  We do not want the world to look down upon us as a cheat or a person, who betrays someone’s trust.

Then we get into a job.  We gradually mature.  We still want create the best first impressions.   The two faces of our personality continues although may be less conspicuous.  We gradually try to bridge the gap but our social image is far more important than our actual image as we realise it.  We are different at home and at work or at least try to be.  Although difficult, our facards continue in adequate display at work.  Our image with team members, peers and bosses are different.

It is this struggle all of us go through in life and it is real.  We need to accept this reality as inevitable.  We could try to bridge this gap between “Personality” and “Character” – the outer and inner image of ourselves.  The only way I have learnt to bridge this gap is to reduce the gap between what we say and what we do.  It is difficult but not impossible to achieve.  Some of us may take longer than other to bridge this gap.  But it is attainable.  The earlier we realise this the better for our personal growth.

It is like in the photo above the personality of the person is like the mask worn by the person and the character is the face behind the mask not visible to us. 

All of us are human and hence there is nothing wrong to realise that all of us have a gap.  The margins may differ but none of us are perfect.  The good news is that it is possible to bridge the gap if we try to do so.

Can we start the journey today ?
S Ramesh Shankar