Rang De Basanti

Rang De Basanti ! 

There’s a trend these days finding management lessons from usually unexpected places. One such place was the famous Mumbai Dabbawallas. And to learn from famous movies is also on. “Lagaan” did teach us many management lessons. Now that the movie “Rang De Basanti” (RDB from now onwards), has been selected as the Indian entry for the Oscar, permit me to try and locate some of the principles of management, as suggested by Fayol.

I liked the movie though not the means adopted by the youngsters to reach the ends.  This movie being a cult movie, it might encourage the youth to get on the violence path. This may lead to an ‘Educated Naxalite’ path and a free-for-all in the society. I would have preferred other methods for addressing their grievances. I would have much appreciated had they taken an approach like a smart ‘sting operation’ to expose the corrupt minister. (Wish somebody remakes the movie from that point onwards when they take to violence, wish I had the means to do it! May be it would not have allowed the director to compare their ‘reel lives’ and the ‘real lives’ which was the main these on the movie.) Nonetheless, the movie offers a number of management lessons.

Subordination of Individual interest to the corporate good  - Every individual (and organization - what is it other than a bunch of individuals?) must have a common ‘Laksha’ (Is Hrithik listening?). It would be to channelize their individual energies for carving out individual successes which would be translated to the organizational achievement. Organizations keep to their niche areas and keep exploiting (that is the precise reasons for huge dollops of dollars and pounds and Euros getting in India in BOPs and Call centers) to the hilt. Here one of the characters has to eliminate his powerful and influential father just before  the climax (it is one aspect which may not go down with many, but please understand that we are not on the judgemental seat here;  we are simply drawing management principles from it) but does it all the same.

Esprit de corps - The English girl is totally bamboozled (and so are we, the spectators) by the close friendship which the youngsters have. They are true friends whether in their care free ‘awtars’ or while on a mission. They care too hoots about what others, including what their own family members think of them. In any organization its the espirit de corps which accounts for many a great achievements. We don’t need to go far, just have a look at  Infosys to confirm this. In the movie, they all adopt the English girl who has so much of cultural difference with their style of living. Why even Aamir’s parents also don’t have any inhibition towards her, in fact his mother herself suggests that she might have fallen in love with her! In organizations if only there are no informal groups based on regionality, caste or language, we all could prosper much faster.  To be honest, it takes a lot of expansive time in many organization for such adoption.

Initiative - All through the movie they have shown tremendous initiative. Whether driving rash, diving backwards in to the pond below, taking the law in their hands (of course this could be debated, as is written earlier), taking over the radio station to send the message to the countrymen after shooting down the corrupt minister etc.  If only most of the persons own the problems, find their innovative solutions; in short take more initiative, most organizations would do much better.

Division of Work - In the beginning, they all are drifting, except for the English girl and Soha. But once they have their ideas clear on how to go about getting justice for their departed friend, all pieces fall in line nicely. At the end, their plot to bump off the minister, to overtake the radio station, to man it skillfully and to address the countryman was a well planned and executed activity which had the work well divided. That they have the chivalry to keep the girls out of it, is another good point.

Equity - It was to be a movie with Aamir the hero; most of us would have expected that he would have got into super hero activities. However, it is a equity which is evident through out the movie, especially toward the end. The temptation to have Aamir speaking on the radio at the end was wisely resisted. They all have definite roles to play and they play it to perfection even if they may not have bargained for the bullets that they would face!

We have only seen five of the principles depicted in this flick, there would be others as well. As long as we understand the principles as management students and the message that we can’t just sit around waiting for things to happen and be proactive, this movie would have achieved its aim, whether an Oscar with it or not.  

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Mercy Killing

“Mercy Killing!”

It was around 7 PM when a call was received by me from my home. It was my wife, a trace of stress in her voice, “Parwati’s husband had come home twice this evening trying to find her  whereabouts. Should I go to their place and check?” Said she.

Oh, how clumsy of me! In the hurry of telling my tale, I forgot to introduce the characters to the readers. Parwati is our maid for the past 10-11 years, more of a family now. Her husband, Prasad, is good for nothing. He has a physical deformity in one of his legs but that does not hamper him doing a painter’s job in the buildings under construction. What hampers is his irresponsible attitude to the work and family. And his huge weakness for the alcohol. He  works for around 30-45 days in a year and wasting away the rest of the days in the company of ‘angoor ki beti’. Suspecting his wife, abusing and beating her are his other hobbies. Parwati, on the other hand happens to be a self-respecting woman of 45 or so who not only manages the family financially but is also paying monthly installments for a small house.

Back to that evening’s incident. I advised my wife to go and look for  Parwati. I reached home from my office at around  9. 00 PM and was told that all was well. At least that day! By the time my wife had reached their place, Parwati had come back. And the other inside information was that Prasad had started his drinking bout that day early morning at 6.00 AM and beat her up mercilessly. And through out the day such things kept repeating. Disgusted, Parwati had left the house and had gone towards railway station. She also confided in my wife that for a moment she was tempted to jump in front of a running train. The sanity prevailed after she thought of her son and she returned home.
Normally I would not interfere as far as ladies, my wife and Parwati, were concerned. However, it was a serious matter and, hence, I confronted Parwati the next day. She listened with concentration. I told her that life is important and she must not succumb to the suicidal thoughts. That there may be other ways to solve this problem. I was taken aback when she asked me point blank, “Then please tell me what are the alternatives?” I was stumped and lost my bearings for a second but carried on nevertheless. Upon this I learnt that Prasad was not welcome at any of the relative’s places including his brothers.  He would never leave Parwati (where else he would get free alcohol in addition to marital pleasures?). “He would come back to me like a dog.”, she mused. “And if I throw him out he would come here in front of this house and say many filthy things.” She added. When I suggested the help of the police , she quipped, “And what will the police do? Lock him up for a day or so and then leave with a sermon? Would that change anything? He is beyond anything as it is. And for police also what’s so big about it? It happens in every second house at our level.”

It was her last remark which inspired me to bring this subject to the readers. It dawned on me that there indeed is no solution to her problems. Unless, of course, the death of Prasad! I had the audacity to express this thought to her and, to my surprise, she agreed without any protest that the death of her husband would be the end of her problems!

So the solution of Parwati and her children lie in the death of the ‘head of the family’! And how long would it take? 2 years, 5 years, 10-20 years, no body knows! Till then she has to endure all the sufferings. After that whatever number of years are left with her, she can breathe easier. That is if there is no untoward incidence in between. Like she committing suicide or poisoning him. (If the older readers recollect, there was a good Hindi movie made by Bimal Roy , “Bandini” where Nutan, in a fit of depression, poisons the lady harassing her). But, if Parwati poisons her husband, our society would clamour for punishing her!

But if nothing can be done by anyone, including Prasad, what about the same society?  Does it have a right to be a mere spectator while such atrocities are being committed?

We debate about ‘mercy-killing’. But it is for those who suffer from incurable diseases. Is being alcoholic not a disease? Is not being insensitive even cruel towards ones family and being a parasite at the same time not a disease? Why can’t the society think of a mercy killing here to end the miseries of the family members? Here the ‘mercy’ would not be on the person suffering but on the remaining frustrated members of the family!  

And such Prasads would be thriving in our society albeit with different qualifications and backgrounds. Essentially, death would be the solution for those cases as well.

I remember an article in Readers Digest some years back describing the plight of a government doctor required to inject a newborn to sleep him to death because the child was over and above the authorization! Their way of family planning! However, let us be practical. We are a society where there was a prolonged irritating debate whether a child-rapist-killer should be hanged or not. It is very difficult to believe that our society would subject these good-for-nothing guys for mercy killing. Then why can’t the government take up the responsibility of these persons? May be to take them in custody and make them do some hard manual work (as is done in the prisons). At least, we can have some out put from them, the family would be better off and their drinking would be controlled.

It is time society did something about it. It is also the time to take a count. Those for ‘mercy killing’ or ‘mercy custody’ to please raise their hands.

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