The Avocado Tree

It was almost two decades back when Meeta, joined our team in Mindtree, Bangalore. She was a specialist and a subject matter expert in Travel industry. In a team where everyone had certain defined ways of working, she brought in a wave of fresh air with new thoughts, ideas and perspectives which were alien to us.

Among the many thoughts she shared, I was particularly interested in her love for plants and everything to do with nature. She was quite excited when I explained to her about the backyard we had in Kerala and the variety of fruit trees, medicinal as well as flowering plants we had there. All thanks to the interest dad and mom had for gardening.

One day Meeta came to office with something that looked like a small ball. The brown colour object was in fact a seed of avocado which she asked me to take back home and give to my dad so that he can plant it. I happily agreed to that.

I had already planned a trip home to Kerala that weekend and took the avocado seed with me. As soon as I reached home, I handed over the precious cargo to dad and told him about the fruit and all its benefits about which Meeta had taken a crash course for me earlier. Those were the times when people in my hometown had not heard about avocadoes, let alone have a tree in the backyard.

Dad especially was blessed with green fingers that everything he planted came up quite well. It was not different for the avocado seed as well. Shortly enough, he gave me the update that the sapling is growing, and we would soon have an avocado tree coming up in our backyard. Probably, he felt it needed a special attention that he planted the seed right outside his bedroom.

Years went by. After about six or seven years of planting the seed, one day dad called me and broke the exciting news that the tree had flowered and had a tiny avocado fruit on it. The excitement was so contagious that I promptly passed the happiness to Meeta. Since that day she wanted to come home and see the beautiful orchard dad and mom had been maintaining back home.

Many more years passed. The avocado tree yielded fresh and tasty fruits in hundreds. Over the next few years our home became the talk of our little town as one with an avocado tree, a rarity then. Dad was quite happy. So was Meeta and me. The avocado tree stood quite high giving the much-needed shade to the bedroom of dad and mom.

Three years ago, after a brave fight to cancer, dad left us. The tree had witnessed many beautiful moments dad shared with us. I am quite sure the tree must have wept bitterly as it saw dad lying in a coffin and eventually taken to the church for his final journey.

They say plants have similar emotions as humans. Not sure if it was grief or not able to receive the love from my dad anymore, the avocado tree started to lean slightly. Over a period, the angle was getting dangerously low that everyone feared that one day the tree will uproot itself and along with it, a portion of the house will get destroyed.

I had moved to Dubai with my family a few years back and during my trip home this year, it came as a shocking surprise one day when mom told me that they had to cut down the tree as it was reaching a tipping point where it would have resulted in a major impact on the house. I was filled with all sorts of emotions, right from the brown seed Meeta gave me, till the time dad said a mute goodbye to the tree.

I stood in silence next to the beloved avocado tree, now reduced to a tiny trunk almost at the ground level. At that moment, I am sure dad stood next to me.

It was a stark reminder about life. As soon as you leave this world, people start associating you to memories. The physical objects connected to you will remain relevant for some more time. After they also reach their time, even they get discarded or forgotten. A few more years and maybe a generation later, you do not even remain in anyone’s memory.

Live your life today, healthy and happy.

Conquering my fear!

Unlike the previous years, as a family we decided to return to Dubai after a short vacation back home in Kerala. Summer holidays for kids continued and the school was meant to reopen by end of August. Since we could not do much on the weekdays, we all looked forward to the weekends to have our special time together as a family. We usually found an attraction or an experience we never had in the past and the excitement of going somewhere new always filled the air on Saturday mornings.

Today was not different. We decided to pay a visit to Mountain Extreme, the largest indoor climbing and bouldering gym in Dubai. Both our kids were super excited at the prospect of climbing the heights and having lots of fun. We reached the place around noon. After a quick registration, we got into our climbing gear with safety harness and special climbing shoes. It was followed by safety instructions to ensure that we understood the dos and don’ts of this extreme sport.

Soon after the briefing was completed, the instructor showed a demo of how to safely climb up and slide down. All of us started climbing one by one. Though I had done this many years ago during my visit to an adventure park, it felt quite a strain in the initial minutes, probably due to lack of exercise or reduced exposure to such extreme sports in the recent past. Having said that, kids seemed to be quite a natural when it came to mountain climbing.

A few attempts into the climb, I managed to reach halfway the wall. While the climb was strenuous, I could attain considerable heights. But there was one area I struggled. Once I reached a point where I decided it was better to slide down, I found an inertia to leave the grip on the wall and allow the auto belay, the supporting rope system to take me down in a controlled manner. Though I did let the auto belay do its job, I guess, I did not fully trust the mechanism. This ended up me experiencing a rough sliding each time I came down.

After a few hours and multiple attempts, I almost decided that I am good at climbing and even reached the top, but not that good at sliding down. My fear of sliding down got the better of me. I even declared that I am done with all the climbing and was mentally ready to return home accepting the fact that I am not good at sliding down.

While a bit dejected, I sat down to wait for my kids to finish their rounds. My ten-year-old little one, continued to climb up and slide down like a pro. Watching her made me feel even more disheartened since I was wondering if my little daughter could do something like that, I should be able to do that as well. I waited for her to come down from top and checked with her how she did the sliding down so effortlessly. She advised me how it was done.

I decided not to succumb to the fear. I connected the harness again and climbed up the wall. Reached halfway and followed the exact advice given by my daughter. It worked wonderfully! I was so excited that I climbed a few more times and each time the slide down was better than before.

The trip home was something akin to a General who won an impossible battle. There will always be fears in our lives that we will face. Many of us will try to conquer them, with some succeeding and others failing. Look around, find ways of winning from others, irrespective of how accomplished they are. We will never know who could be the one to motivate us towards our success.

To fear is human, to conquer that is divine! 

Mango Rice - Grandpa's Secret!

One of the greatest fortunes I consider in my life is to grow up in the lush green state of Kerala in India. We lived in a, now 77 years old, ancestral home built by my grandpa, whom we affectionately called Achayan. 

The plot where we stayed had two levels, with the house occupying most of the upper level and a backyard with numerous trees and plants that adorned the lower one. Among the many trees, we had half a dozen varieties of mangoes, some sweet and some bordering sour.

As a man born one year before First World War started, Achayan had certain special ways about him, some of which may sound strange to the generations that followed. One such unique interest was his practice of having lunch with the typical Kerala boiled rice mixed with a slightly sour type of mango named 'Kannan'.

May and June used to be the season for mangoes in the tropical Kerala climate. The trees flowered during May and bore fruit in June. The famous Kerala monsoon also started in June, blessing us with not just rains, but also showers of ripe mangoes!

As a young boy, one of my first duties in the morning during those months was to run to the backyard and fetch all the mangoes that 'Kannan' had to offer from the previous night's rain. I must state here that the tree never disappointed me. There would be at least two mangoes that awaited me. As I fetched them, I could feel the old tree, which must be older than Achayan himself, smiling with happiness of feeding yet another generation.

Closer to lunch time, mom would give Achayan, a bowl of rice water along with slices of mango that I fetched in the morning. Then started the most important part of the unique process leading to the special mango rice. Achayan would squeeze every bit of pulp from the mango slices, that at the end of the exercise, nothing would be left except for the empty skin of mango. 

During the process, enough rice water is added to the mango pulp to bring it to the required consistency. The gourmet mango mix was ready. A plate of steaming hot rice awaited the magic potion. Once mixed, the legendary mango rice was born!

As a connoisseur of stories from the past, I ensured that I shared the taste of this special preparation with Achayan a few times. Though it did not convert me into an ardent fan, the taste of that unique dish left lasting memories for me to recall the experience even after almost four decades.

We all live once in this world. But how many of us leave beautiful memories behind us for our next generations to reminisce and recollect?

I love my Achayan, who lives in my heart forever. The mango rice story just added a flavour to those memories.

Book a Flight, not a Fight!

After a long gap of three years, John, and Leny along with their two children were looking forward to their trip back home to Kerala from London. John took the initiative to find a good deal with a travel agent to book tickets with one of the best-known airline brands in the world. He booked a flight from London to Kochi via Doha.

John was quite confident that it was going to be a fantastic journey, especially since they were travelling home after a long time. Everything was picture perfect till they landed in Doha. It was a lovely flight with all the comfort of a full carrier, and the experience was truly matching the airline brand.

Soon, they reached the transfer desk and were promptly directed to their connection flight. As soon as they arrived at the boarding gate, the world around them froze! To their surprise, they were getting into a narrow body aircraft, which was low-cost by design and obviously could not even compare to the facilities offered by a full carrier such as the one they arrived from London.

John was shocked! All what he did was to look at Leny once. She was fuming! The dead stare that he received from his sweetheart was akin to fire from a blast furnace. He was truly at a loss of words about what happened.

The ticket clearly showed the flight number for their entire journey, with two-letter code of the full carrier they took from London. No other flight number was seen on the ticket to depict that they will be transferred to a low-cost carrier. To make things worse, in the middle of scorching summer heat at Doha, their flight had to wait for a while to receive clearance to take-off. John had only one doubt. What was more on fire? The desert, or his darling? He continued to bear the brunt of anger from Leny throughout the flight, making the journey to Kochi one of his worst trips in his lifetime.

What really happened was, when John approached the travel agent for booking the ticket, he was provided with tickets for his entire journey. But those were tickets sold by the full carrier with a code share agreement with the low-cost carrier. In that case, the flight number remained the same. But on the ticket issued by the full carrier, for Kochi sector, there was a clear print below the flight number that said ‘operated by xyz airline’ which was the low-cost carrier. Unfortunately, poor John, did not know this difference and ended up being at the receiving end.

A codeshare flight is a commercial arrangement where an airline sells tickets for a flight, but the actual physical flight is provided by a partner airline. (Source: navan.com)

While booking a flight, just like any other service we avail, we need to have clarity on what we are paying for. Ask if you may so that you do not end up booking a fight instead of a flight.

Bon voyage. 

The Corporate Monarchs!

Royal families and monarchies had always excited people across the world. Stories that met public eye were usually lapped up with a mix of awe and even a tinge of envy by common people. Little did they know of the realities of what went behind the closed doors of palaces or castles.

‘The Crown’ is a drama series that was released ten years ago in Netflix which portrayed British monarchy, especially the era of Queen Elizabeth II. There are quite a lot of remarkable episodes in the six-season series. While I was late to the party, I could not help but be at awe at some of the moments that were beautifully captured.

For instance, ‘Marionattes’ the fifth episode in season 2 of the series portrayed a sequence of how the Queen came under criticism for being a puppet of her courtiers. This was followed by the obvious rejection of criticism by the cynical monarch, an eventual twist of tale based on a meeting unrecorded in the history, of an audience with the critic by the Queen herself, and how the Queen made changes to her ways of working that transformed the monarchy to a more effective and appealing entity to the public.

The critic of the Queen was Lord Altrincham, once a Lieutenant in British Army who later tried his hands in politics and went on to become a historian and a journalist. If you can spare a few minutes, I strongly recommend watching this episode and do not be surprised if you draw an interesting parallel to the present-day corporate world.

It all started with Lord Altrincham writing a critical observation about a speech made by the Queen at the Jaguar factory in the year 1958. To set the context, this was immediately after a crushing defeat for the British armed forces against Egypt and Russia during the Suez Canal crisis, with UK losing its face and the military intervention severely straining the exchequer. Britain was broke. That was when the Queen delivered the speech that had statements which did not even acknowledge this reality and instead demeaned the people of the nation.

Interestingly even before the speech, an assistant private secretary tried to do a fact-check with the principal private secretary of the Queen about the inappropriate wordings of the speech the latter penned. But instead of trying to review, he denied it vehemently stating the Queen trusted him. Indeed, that was what happened. The monarch trusted her key personnel and delivered a mistake which people noticed, and one man stood up and spoke.

What happened later was more interesting. Initial reactions to the published article attracted a lot of wrath from the public that Lord Altrincham even got slapped by a member of an extremist group who supported monarchy. This was immediately after the critic was invited to a TV show where he articulated his thoughts in a calm, yet firm manner. The common public later acknowledged this and agreed with his views. Eventually Lord Altrincham received an invitation from Buckingham Palace where he met the Queen herself, though apparently not recorded in the history books. But the visit itself created history due to the changes the world saw that were brought in at the palace and for the monarchy itself!

Whether this incident happened with all its amusement as depicted in the Netflix series, one thing is certain. We see this drama unfolding in the modern-day corporate world as well with certain leaders functioning like a monarch. They are surrounded by office courtiers who feed all kind of incorrect realities to bosses who take decisions and actions which are against the wellbeing of their staff. That is when the likes of Lord Altrincham are born in organizations where people start raising their concerns. The natural reaction from leaders is to suppress a rebellion. But, blessed are those who decide to listen to those articulated revolutionaries and change if necessary.

For all that matter, a change proposed if implemented may even catapult the leadership to never-seen-before heights and people will have renewed faith on their leaders and loyalties will be restored with even more vigour.

Change is never easy but not listening to potential changes make matters even more difficult. Good leaders do not resist change, they listen, absorb, and adapt good changes for the benefit of their team, the organization and for themselves which transforms leaders from being good to great. It may even lead to history counting them among the legends in the corporate world! 

ഹൃദയം കൊണ്ട് എഴുതുന്ന കവിത

ഇന്നലെ വൈകുന്നേരം ഷോപ്പിംഗ് കഴിഞ്ഞപ്പോൾ കുറച്ച് വൈകി. തിരികെ വീട്ടിലേക്ക് വരുന്ന വഴി Hit 96.7 FM, പാട്ടുകൾ കൊണ്ട് ഒരു സായാഹ്ന വിരുന്ന് ഒരുക്കി എന്ന് പറഞ്ഞാൽ അത് അതിശയോക്തി ആവില്ല. വീട് എത്തുന്നതിനു തൊട്ടുമുൻപ് ഒരു പുതിയ പാട്ടിന്റെ തുടക്കത്തിലുള്ള ഈണം കേട്ട് തുടങ്ങി. കേട്ടപാതി എന്റെ മറുപാതി പറഞ്ഞു, 'അയ്യോ ഇതെനിക്ക് നന്നായിട്ട് അറിയാവുന്ന പാട്ടാണല്ലോ. ഞാനിപ്പോ പറയാമേ.' 

ഈണം തീർന്ന്, പാട്ട് തുടങ്ങുന്നതിനു മുൻപ് തന്നെ എനിക്ക് കാർ ഞങ്ങളുടെ ബേസ്മെന്റ് പാർക്കിങ്ങിലേക്ക് കയറ്റേണ്ടി വന്നു. പാട്ട് തുടങ്ങിയ സമയമായപ്പോഴേക്കും റേഡിയോയുടെ സിഗ്നൽ കട്ട് ആവുകയും പാട്ട് ഏതാണെന്ന് തിരിച്ചറിയാൻ പറ്റാതെ വരികയും ചെയ്തു.

ഏതോ അപൂർവഭാഗ്യത്താൽ, വണ്ടി പാർക്ക് ചെയ്ത് ഇറങ്ങുന്നതിന്റെ തൊട്ടുമുമ്പുള്ള നിമിഷം പാട്ടിന്റെ അനുപല്ലവി കേൾക്കാൻ സാധിച്ചു!

'ഹൃദയം കൊണ്ട് എഴുതുന്ന കവിത'. അതായിരുന്നു ആ പാട്ട്. കാറിൽ നിന്ന് ഇറങ്ങി ആ പാട്ട് പാടിക്കൊണ്ട് എന്റെ പ്രിയതമ മുന്നോട്ടു നടന്നപ്പോൾ, മനസ്സിൽ ആ സമയത്ത് തോന്നിയ ഒരു മണ്ടൻ കുസൃതി ചോദ്യം ഞാൻ ചോദിച്ചു.

'ഹൃദയംകൊണ്ട് ആരെങ്കിലും എഴുതുവോ, പേന കൊണ്ടല്ലേ എഴുതേണ്ടത്?'

സാധാരണ ഇതുപോലെയുള്ള എന്റെ ചില തരം കുറഞ്ഞ തമാശകൾ കേൾക്കുമ്പോൾ, അർഹിക്കുന്ന അവജ്ഞയോടെ തള്ളിക്കളയുന്ന രീതിയിൽ ഇതും തള്ളിക്കളയും എന്നാണ് ഞാൻ പ്രതീക്ഷിച്ചത്. എന്നാൽ സംഭവിച്ചത് നേരെ മറിച്ചാണ്. പിന്തിരിഞ്ഞു നോക്കാതെ എന്റെ നേർക്ക് ഒരു ബ്രഹ്മാസ്ത്രം പാഞ്ഞു വന്നു.

'അതിന് ആദ്യം ഒരു ഹൃദയം ഉണ്ടാവണം!'.

സാധാരണഗതിയിൽ ബ്രഹ്മാസ്ത്രം തടുക്കുവാൻ ആർക്കും സാധിക്കില്ല. പക്ഷേ ഫുട്ബോൾ ലോകകപ്പിന്റെ കാലം ആയതുകൊണ്ടാണോ എന്തോ, വേഗം തന്നെ ഒരു സിസർ കട്ടിലൂടെ എന്റെ മനസ്സിൽ തോന്നിയ ഒരു ഉഗ്രൻ കിക്ക് ഞാൻ തിരിച്ചു പ്രയോഗിച്ചു.

'അതെങ്ങനെ പറ്റും? എന്റെ ഹൃദയം പണ്ടേ നീ അടിച്ചു മാറ്റിയതല്ലേ?'

പൊണ്ടാട്ടി ഫ്ലാറ്റ്! അങ്ങനെ ഇത്തവണത്തെ വേൾഡ് കപ്പുമായി ഞാൻ വീട്ടിലേക്ക് കയറി.

സായാഹ്നം ശുഭം.

Emotion Erosion

The other day, Mia, my daughter who is in Grade 5 was studying for her upcoming exam. The chapter she was reading had a section that spoke about soil erosion and the impact that had on mother nature. The key aspect of soil erosion is that it deprives the nutrition rich topsoil that the fertility of the land gets directly affected.

As she continued her lesson, I could not help but think about a travelogue I read two days ago. It was written by a friend who loved traveling and kept writing about his trips. While I enjoy reading travelogues, this time something was different. It lacked the usual warmth. Somewhere the emotions were missing. I immediately checked with him and understood that though he wrote the initial draft, further refining and the outcome was achieved with the help of an AI tool.

When it comes to using AI for writing, what I mentioned above is just a sample. These days many of us use AI for several types of activities. Especially when it comes to writing, I know a lot of people who use AI for drafting E-mails, sending minutes of meetings, and even authoring articles. Of course, many follow the path my friend took. But have you ever thought what truly happens each time you use AI for any of the above actions? Your content gets created one way or the other, but you deprive the outcome of your heart and soul.

Now, you could argue very well that for an official E-mail or minutes of meetings, why do we need to worry about emotions. From a pure business perspective, it makes sense. That is perhaps how the future is going to be. Maybe the writer in me is yet to accept the fact that I need someone or something else to do that job for me. Hence, I am yet to take the help of an AI to do that job for me.

I also strongly believe that the process of writing itself is a mini evolution. You do not just write and send something. When you write, you go through multiple rounds of thinking, iterating and re-iterating the thoughts in your mind and finally by the time you send the content to the intended recipients, the points are deeply etched in your mind that you can recollect them anytime in future. I really doubt if the heavy reliance on AI will help with this. Time will tell.

As we are at a transition point in our lives with AI looming over everything, I could not help but remember another major transition many of us who were born before 90s have lived through. We had seen how the age of writing letters using letter pads and pen or inland letters or airmail gave way to E-mails and subsequently to instant messages. I personally feel, none of the electronic form of communication were ever able to replicate the warmth those physical letters. For all that matter, we all have heard the anomaly that when the world got smaller, people shrunk even further into themselves.

Just ask us this question. If you were one who used to write letters on a regular basis to your family or friends, do you do the same with E-mails or WhatsApp? Do you remember the feeling you had when you were anticipating a reply from a dear cousin, and the excitement when it was nearing the day when the letter was expected? Do you remember waiting patiently for the postman to showup and either feel elated to see him handing over to you the much-anticipated letter or feel dejected not to have the letter arrive that day? Do you remember the feeling of happiness seeing a new stamp affixed on the cover and the postal seal which had the place name where the letter was posted? I am sure that some of us even felt the warmth and scent of the person as soon as the letter was opened. These and many more were the lost experiences when E-mails and later instant messaging replaced traditional letters.

If AI makes life easier, I am all for it. But if I can help it, I would prefer not to lose the human touch forever. I am also aware that certain changes are inevitable in life, and I will eventually accept that. Just the way I do not write letters anymore and be content with the deprecated emotions brought to me by the digital self of people who write to me than let their physical-self converse with me. Just the way soil erosion can create new landforms and landscapes, these emotional erosions may create new avenues for us humans.

Let us ensure that while AI leads the change, humanity still wins!