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.

Natural versus artificial intelligence

We are all born with natural intelligence. We develop this in our childhood. I am told that the human brain grows only up to a certain age in childhood and then possibly ,we need to exercise our brain to sharpen our intelligence.

In our early childhood, we are asked to memorise poems and debates at school and also some religious texts at home. This way our brain gets to exercise and perhaps helps us to keep ourselves alert.

As we move to college, we still get opportunities to test our brain and intelligence ,through projects and assignments. This continues at our workplace in corporates and in our own businesses.

However, as technology has developed ,we have started depending more on it, than on human brain. In the past, we remembered the phone numbers of all our friends and relatives ,since the landline we had ,did not have memory and it possibly compelled us to do so. Today we may not even remember our own numbers ,since the mobile stores everything for us and retrieves in a jiffy.

Human intelligence is natural and is possibly given in equal measure ,to all of us ,by the Almighty. Some of us exercise our brain enough and hence become more intelligent than others. Some may let laziness overcome them and hence their brains possibly degenerates faster.

Today we hear and talk of Artificial intelligence . As the name suggests, artificial intelligence is developed by mankind. It is artificial by nature and responds the same way. It is like a database ,developed over a period of time and can at best do repetitive tasks better than human beings.

Let us take an example. We all are aware of self driving cars. I understand that the artificial intelligence for these cars are developed by human beings ,by studying and feeding data over a period of time in all possible situations, in which a human being drives a car. So ,this AI enabled self driving car ,is able to reach its destination through the route fed into it and responds as is needed ,in all possible situations ,it can encounter on the way.

However, imagine a child tries to play prank on the road or the power fails due to a major grid failure and the traffic signals do not operate the way it should. A human being driving a car ,may be in a better position to respond in such a situation and drive to her destination safely. A self driving car may struggle to do the same.

In my view, artificial intelligence can do repetitive tasks possibly better than human beings can. However when complex human emotions come into play, artificial intelligence may not be able to adapt to the same and respond.

Another example could be that an AI enabled bot could possibly diagnose a cancer patient based on all possible cancer cases recorded all around the world. However, if a new variant of cancer comes in, like the Covid pandemic hit us, only Human intelligence will be able to respond and manage it.

We need to strike the right balance between ,natural or human intelligence and artificial intelligence ,to be happier in life.

Lets start today.

S Ramesh Shankar

13th Sep 2023

Time running out

We all are human and tend to procrastinate things at the slightest pretext. We need not feel guilty about the same as most of us would have done it in some things in life. It may be worthwhile to understand as to why we do it and what can be done to overcome it.

Time is an invaluable resource and all of us are gifted ,with the same quantity in our lives. But some of us are able to gainfully utilise the same while others fritter it away ,thinking it is cheap and can be substituted with other resources.

It is important to realise that when time runs out, we can do nothing about it. It could be in our final school -board exams, where we did not prepare well and hence missed a distinction ,by a few marks. It could be that we did not apply on time and missed a college admission and thereby a year in life.

We may have missed a train or plane since we always have the excuse of bad traffic on our roads. But, the day we realise that the train or the plane does not stop for anyone in life, we may never miss it again.

I should confess that I have procrastinated many things in my life and I cannot blame anyone else other than myself. However, the good news is that ,when I realise that time will not wait for me, I do become self disciplined and then work like a machine.

This may be true for many of us. When we are working against the tide, we may be choice less. However, why do we need to create such a situation in our lives ? What prevents us from planning and organising ourselves in such a way ,that we are in control of our time ,at all times.

One of the basics of managing our time, is prioritisation. We need to segregate our tasks into important and urgent ; focus on the important and then the urgent. Our natural tendency is to focus on the urgent and the easier things in life and postpone the important ones.

The second important tenet of time management is our ability to “say no” to ourselves and others. We sometimes get overcome by greed rather than need. It is like having that extra sweet, when we do not need an additional one. We have to develop the skill of saying no to ourselves. Similarly, we need to say no to others, when we are sure ,we do not have time to do what they want us to do.

The third and the most important aspect of managing our time is planning. We tend to jump into action even before we plan. If we plan a trip well in advance, then execution is easy. However we generally jump into the train and then wonder ,where we need to stay and where we need to visit ,during a travel.

Life is no different. Time management is prioritisation, our ability to say no and meticulous planning. If we are clear what we need to do and what we need not do, that could be the first step. Then our ability to say no to what we cannot do. Thirdly planning in detail ,on what we need to do. Then we realise ,that time waits for us rather than we being overtaken by time.

I am reminded of a famous quote of poet Kabir, who said – “ Tomorrow’s work do today, today’s work now. If the moment is lost, how will the work be done ?

Time to reflect

S Ramesh Shankar

13th Sep 2023

Just call back

I was watching a movie last night and realised how important it is to call back every missed call we get, even  if we are busy with work or life at any time. In this movie, the mother calls her daughter from the death bed and she does not pick up. Then the father calls to inform his daughter that her mother is no more. This time the daughter is in a party and misses her father’s call as the phone was left for charging.

If we look back at our lives, we are not very different. We miss calls on our mobile or landline because we are busy at work or driving or shopping or partying. We may forget to call back but that may have been the most important call in our lives.

It may be a relative who has met with an accident and is in an emergency, a friend who has lost his father and is seeking help or a daughter in distress ,calling her parents. All of us are equally responsible for such lapses and it happens all around us ,day in and night out.

The best of education may not teach you this basic etiquette of life. We need to call back every missed call ,imagining that it may have been the most important call ,for the person calling us. Imagine we are in some deep trouble and nobody picks up our call and no one calls us back. The feeling of distress and disappointment ,is to be experienced to be believed.

We do not realise that neither our work nor our social life ,can justify our behaviour in such circumstances. There is no point in regretting not attending your mother’s funeral since you were busy attending a business meeting and forgot to call back your family.

I sometimes wonder, why we do not learn from the mistakes we make, every other day in our lives. We do not call back our parents ,while we missed calls at our work place. We may miss an important call from a friend or relative but just forget about it ,thinking we can always revert later. We do not realise ,that sometimes we may never be able to speak to the caller again ,since they may be breathing their last while they called us. We may have to live with that guilt ,right through our lives.

Relationships in life are much more valuable than wealth or anything else. It could be relationships within the family, it could be friends , relatives or even colleagues at work. If we cannot be of help to friends, relatives or family when they need us the most, we may not be worthy of living a fulfilling life.

I would like to dedicate this blog to the countless people, who generally forget to call back. I want to remind them and myself too that the call we missed may be a life changing experience for us. It could be the death of a near or dear one. It could be the happy news of a new born baby or it could be a distress call from a friend or relative.

Let us resolve today ,that we will never miss a call and if we do, for any reason beyond our control, we will always call back.

Let us start today. Just call back please…

S Ramesh Shankar

5th August 2023