Analogikal

‘Fish philosophy!’ She exclaimed. ‘That’s what you need’. ‘Wow! Sounds delicious’. Said the voice in my head. She continued to speak as my mind wandered on fish. How the kingfish my mom makes is quite heavenly. The fish beautifully marinaded in herbs, spices and motherly love just tastes as delectable as angel wings in barbecue sauce. As my mind swam around in aquarian cuisine, I could see my colleagues colour coated lips move at a rapid pace. She started waving close to my face. I realised i had missed the spoilers to the latest avengers movie among the best part of the fish philosophy. She had spoken a good deal about it. Just to acknowledge her effort, i elaborated, ‘i feel that there is a lack of team cohesion and a culture of trust which needs to be inculcated’. I thought it sounded kinda dumb keeping in mind how the statement was devoid of the average 5 HR jargon per sentence. But she seemed convinced. ‘Whale done’ that’s what you need’, she blurted out! Well she didn’t deviate too far from her first proposal. Whale also lives in oceans. Much like fish. That counts for something. 

Well this was the synopsis of the conversation i had with a subject matter expert in HR. I had a problem at hand. The employees i handle were not putting too much trust in their managers. It’s not a unique problem. It’s as old as the concept of managerial hierarchy and HR jargons. Lets face it, nobody trusts their manager. Unless you are serving in the forces for hydra or you are the clone army fighting for the empire. In which case you don’t need an HR assistance nor intervention. But the problem i had was mine. There might be others like it, but this one was mine. I thought of seeking expert opinion as i was running out of ideas. Before i was done explaining, my knowledgeable colleague was eager to shove theories of fish and whales down my head. It would have been apt, hell it could have been the best solution ever! We would never know. 

When i was a child, my father told me a story of two doctors who treated a king. Yes king! That’s how our stories roll. The first one came in, did his diagnosis and said that the king has fever and gave him some medicines and kinda scooted off from there. The king was not convinced. The second one came in. Spent some time. Got some tests done. Observed the king a couple of days and said that he has a fever. And additionally he said why he has the fever and how he can improve his life by doing certain things differently. The king was impressed and gave him a bullock cart load of stuff and set him up for life. Then my dad would ask me what the moral of the story is. Over the years i have found different morals to the story. Varying from ‘you should suck up to the one with power’ to ‘if you want a bullock cart load of stuff then don’t just do the bare minimum’. The first doctor would have been efficient. But he was not able to convey his skills and diagnosis efficiently. Well, you get the point. He might have been able to help the patient. But he was not able to delight the patient. In this day and age delight is a matter of spending an extra moment. 

Now, i’m no king (duh!). But my client is. At least for me. I was not satisfied with the hasty half baked solution my colleague provided. It tasted like a week old yoghurt in the indian summer. What irked me was the sheer haste and lack of interest in diving into the problem. We are all, driven by destinations. What i imagined was embarking on a journey across narnia to find hidden treasures and unending mystery. What i got was ‘Luke, I am your father’ rolling with the opening credits. 

We are driven by destinations. Our spirit of exploration and journey has slowly wilted away. We hop from one milestone to the next like super mario on a cheat code induced high. Forgetting the beauty and the magic of the journey. The magic of a stolen glance. The mystery of that naughty smile. The majesty of sunset. The halcyon of sunrise. The rush of an argument. The taste of camaraderie. The spirit of companionship. The depth of silence. The flavour of life. Swept aside in our singular focus towards destination. We are slaves to our tunnel vision. One which is induced by time. We can feel time is running out and we need to have a tick mark on all the checkboxes. 

We surge across majestic moments in our life without noticing them. We are romantically involved with the fastlane. Lets just get this done with so we can do the next big thing. There is nothing more important than right now. Right now is where we are. 

Life is not an epic saga. Life is a caricature of mundane moments painted in the hues of black, white and gray. Embrace it. Slow down. Don’t shove fish philosophy down someone’s throat. Grab a chair. Grab a hot beverage. Embark on a winding road. Because the most amazing part is the journey and not the destination.