The living bullet!

Last night, my daughter was playing with her gun, shooting off bullets everywhere. One bullet fell into the tiny gap between the wall and the bed. She wanted to retrieve it, but the bed was too heavy to move. It was pretty late and I was at wits-end, trying to put her to sleep. So I promised her that we would pick it the next day. She cried for 10 minutes straight.

ME: Seriously! Can you please stop?

SHE: How would you feel if you were a newborn abandoned in a dark room full of dust?

ME: Eh? What?

SHE: The bullet is new to this house. (its a new toy)

ME: So?

SHE: It would feel very lonely!

ME: Gawd! Do you even know the difference between living and non-living things?

SHE: Yes.

ME: So is the bullet living or non-living?

SHE: Living!

ME: I gotta talk to your teacher!

SHE: Germs are everywhere! Germs are living things. I am sure there are germs on the bullet too!

ME: Err..!

SHE: The germs were in the fancy toy shop before! They’re used to that.. Now they’re in the dark gap full of dust. They must be really sad.

ME: Hmm..

SHE: So remember.. Non-living things may appear to be non-living, but are actually not!

ME: Okay.. Never thought of that.. Thanks for letting me know!

Image: Dexter's Laboratory

Epistocracy?

Around the time of the great Indian election results announcement, I came across this news snippet on Knappily about epistocracy. I wanted to write about it then and bam it’s been months now! Well, better late than never.

By the way, speaking of Knappily, I highly recommend this app. It’s a no-nonsense knowledge app with the articles put up in a neat format. It not only includes current day affairs but several articles on historical news too. So yes, if you that interests you, go ahead and install it.

Now coming back to epistocracy.

Epistocracy is a system in which the votes of people who can prove their political knowledge count more than the votes of people who can’t. It is directly opposite to democracy because it argues that the right to participate in political decision-making depends on whether or not you know what you are doing. Having heard the term for the first time, I was fascinated. I have heard a lot of people ranting that folks at their home vote for a particular party because they have been doing so for generations. A lot of people are ill-informed. Well, people believe and forward the WhatsApp message that says the Indian national anthem has been chosen as the best in the world. :) Need I say more? 

Most voters act as “political fans” cheering a team and there is blatant ignorance on the real motives of the candidate/party. Then there is the religious/racial bias on the support, especially in our country. The real knowledge to make an informed decision is very limited to a small percentage of people.  Well, in fact, I wouldn’t even count myself as very politically informed!

Of course, on the downside implementing such a system is not practical and is very complex. There is the matter of defining how a person can be marked as politically educated. And most importantly this will widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots, giving more power to those privileged enough to fit the definition of “politically informed” while pushing poor voters even further to the margins.

What is your opinion on this?

Leader, not boss!

**This is a blog that I penned in my company's blog, when I was asked to write about someone I had admired at work.**

When Kartic initiated Legends of Cognizant series, among the people I have closely worked with, Shankar is the first person who came to my mind. Everything in this blog happened 4 yrs ago. But to date he’s the best lead I have ever worked with.

Shankar had been an acquaintance for a while before I was moved to his team and he became my project lead. For an Associate with only 5 years of experience, he was handling such a big team (around 25-30 under him I guess). That itself speaks volumes about him. I haven’t yet heard of anyone given such enormous responsibility at an early stage.

1. The freedom that he bestowed on his team was commendable (trust me! not everyone does that) Did his team complete a work by sitting on it for 8 hrs or 6 hrs and a 2 hr break? It didn’t matter to him, as long as the outcome was a quality deliverable. He wasn’t the “boss” who tied reigns and micromanaged.
2. He wasn’t afraid to speak his mind, irrespective of who the person was. He was never manipulative and dint beat around the bush. You ask him a question, you get a direct answer. I remember once, when I was leaving for the day (after 10 hrs. in office), an onsite lead called him up.

Onsite lead: “Why is she leaving already? Maybe she could do some of tomorrow’s deliverables in advance!” Shankar: Has she completed deliverables for the day?Onsite lead: Yes. Shankar: So she’s leaving. End of conversation! If you think about it, not every offshore lead does that.

3. He always helped his subordinates to grow. You want to innovate? He will help you work on your idea and bring it to life. You think a template can be done differently to capture metrics better? There’s never a “oh but the client/manager wants it to be done this way only.” He always gave a chance to do things better, even if it meant uncomfortable changes or raising a few eyebrows. He made sure his teammates hogged the limelight when the time came (that’s what a leader is for, right?) He always gave credit when it was due and also never pointed fingers when there were escalations.

4. He was extremely committed- even though he never forced his team to stay back, I’ve seen him sit into late nights working on his deliverables or helping his teams out. If required, I’ve seen him pitch in and work on Test Execution also, even though that’s not part of his job. Also he was a man who donned several hats. His contribution to team building activities and event management is noteworthy. He was also a trainer and evaluator in Cognizant academy.

5. He was compassionate. He empathized with his team. To him an associate was a human, than just a resource. He was more of a friend to his team and spoke to everyone on a personal level. Once, I had to stay back for an emergency deliverable till 2am. The last cab was at 12.30 am. He came all the way (my home is 35 kms away) and dropped me home safe.

6. He had a great sense of humor- OK, I know some people are going to disagree with me on this because you can hear him crack “mokka” jokes all the time But whatever, it lightens up the mood- you either laugh or do a face palm.

So to summarize, Shankar is dream-lead material  I’ve had a lot of learning from him on how to be a leader rather than a boss. He’s not with Cognizant anymore and unfortunately I haven’t heard from him in the last 4 years, but I am sure he’s doing very well in his current engagement.

Edit: After I wrote this post, Kartic was kind enough to find Shankar’s mail ID and now we’re in touch