As I saw it

In the last fortnight, in two managerial effectiveness training programmes for two clients from vastly different sectors separated by about 1,500 kms, I heard the same remark from two participants: "Aap Urdu bohat achhi bol lete hain. Yahan tak ki, aap ki pronunciation bhi ek dum sahi hai." In both the cases I smiled and said, "You mean, meri pronunciation ek dum khaalis hai?" They smiled even more; nodded and asked me how I did it? Their question was basically how could a person with a clearly south Indian name be so good with a north Indian language, its nuances and pronunciation? One of them further added that he had noticed that I was equally good with pure Hindi as well as fluent in English and that I switched effortlessly between all the three languages. He too wanted to know how. Well before I proceed, I must share that I am not a master of any of the three languages mentioned here; least of all Urdu which I cannot read or write. I have been mi...

I was at a client site recently for a session on managerial effectiveness for new managers. During one of the tea breaks I stepped into the adjacent room of the training room coordinator. He got off the phone and shared something which at once was peculiar, funny and also highlighted something about human psychology. He shared that the head of their L&D team had just scolded one more of their team members for not complying with the request that had been passed on to the team from the CEO. While the rest of the team members were certainly upset at being scolded, they were more upset that the L&D Head had never scolded the training room coordinator and his assistant. He shared with me that to the best of his understanding, the L&D Head had never scolded him because he and his assistant had complied with all the requests on them and that he could also be assertive with the Head during the team meetings. I remembered the scene from the movie 3 Idiots when Farhan an...