Rajat Gupta's "Chasing Dark Nights"

When Eugene O'Kelly, CEO and Senior Partner of KPMG, was diagnosed with blood cancer and was told of his imminent death, he focussed his attention on a more spiritual and less mundane way of looking at life and came up with in immensely valuable book titled "Chasing Daylight". There is no wonder that readers of this book are eternally beholden to the author.

When King Parikshit was cursed that he would die in 7 days, he made the best use of the remaing week listening to Srimad Bagavatam. This incident motivates thousands of believers to study Srimad Bagavatam and thereby enrich their life.

When Rajat Gupta ultimately lands in prison, would he write down his rich experience including where he went wrong in a book that may be christened "Chasing Dark Nights"? That may well be the only way of cleansing his false steps.

Steve Jobs

The untimely death of Steven Paul Jobs was not unexpected. Combination of diseased pancreas and foreign liver is an invitation to early death. Heightened perception of mortality pushed Jobs to be more creative. While delivering the Commencement Address to graduating students at Stanford University in June 2005, he hoped that diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in the year 2004 was the closest he got to a near-death experience FOR A FEW MORE DECADES. This was one of the very few unprophetic utterances we can ever attribute to the co-founder of Apple. If he had had a say in the design of his physiology he would have lived longer.

He was as fascinated with death as he was with the products designed by him. To him Death was very likely the single best invention of Life. He combined the philosophical and the practical when he exhorted the Stanford students, "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart." A legend is no more.

Added on 9th October:

Name any handicap or obstacle to progress, Steve Jobs faced it and yet succeeded. He was an illegitimate child, an adopted son, a college drop out, a struggling entrepreneur, an ousted manager, living with a transplanted liver and dying from a rare type of painful pancreatic cancer.

Swami Parthasarathy and R.Seshasayee

Both Swami Parthasarathy (SP) and R.Seshasayee (RS) are towering personalities in their respective fields. The former is well known for his peripatetic lectures on the Bagawad Gita and the latter for his scrupulous adherence to principles of corporate governance. Hence it was not surprising that RS was to receive the first copy of SP's book titled "Governing Business and Relationships". The function was to begin at 6.30 pm on 31st August. The start was unusually delayed by half an hour. Since SP and RS are known for punctuality the audience was wondering what was happening.

RS was quick to solve the puzzle when he apologised for being late on account of an unusual traffic snarl. This apology would have been forgotten then and there but for SP's subsequent 'unbecoming' reference to his own record of never having  been late to any function. It is beyond one's understanding whether a public reprimand of this type was necessary at all. One can easily visualise RS's contretemps when he was chided like a schoolboy.

SP's disappointment at delayed start was obvious from his facial expression also as if words were not brutal enough. RS is certainly wise enough to ensure that he does not place himself in a similar circumstance anytime in the future.

RS likened himself to Napolean's security guard. Whenever Napolean wanted to communicate with his subjects, he " test-marketed" his message with his not-so-well educated guard. If the guard could understand, there was no doubt that everyone would understand. Similarly, the first copy of the new book was being given to RS !

RS also referred to the eternal dilemma faced by business managers on ethics of creating demand and then catering to it in order to make a profit. He was also complacent enough to justify this managerial behaviour under the pretext of "Swadharma". This was perhaps stretching the concept of Swadharma a bit too far. Swadharma is ordained by nature or driven by circumstances. One cannot create one's own swadharma and claim to justify one's behaviour. If RS was trying to placate SP or was looking for SP's elucidation on this existential moral dilemma , SP did not appear to be obliging.

SP's hour-long lecture focused on the three C's for successful governance of business. He defined Concentration as the ability to zero in on the present without being distracted by worries about the past and anxiety about the future. Consistency is the invariable direction of one's efforts towards attainment of a goal. Cooperation stems from the realisation that we are all spokes in a large wheel and that everyone has to play one's role.

How to govern one's relationships? SP was forthright in highlighting the importance of proper 'assessment' of the persons we deal with. Why is this difficult? Any species of animals has uniform character and behaviour. For example, all tigers are ferocious, all cobras are venomous and all cows are docile. Humans do not conform to any such uniform standards. This peculiarity is at once a challenge and an opportunity. We cannot govern our relationships with the suave and the irritable in the same way.

Indians' unconcern for finality

It is a trite saying that India lives in eternity. Occidental anxiety to 'settle issues' and 'move on' is typically absent in India.

For instance, a judge may be allegedly venal; in case he or she is not politically backed, probes and investigations would follow. After these processes consume enormous time without nearing the truth in any way, impeachment proceedings may be set in motion which will meander along till cows come home. In the meanwhile, the judge may have retired, deceased or settled cosily abroad. Impeachment proceedings will get aborted at some stage or the other. In the event all are happy that all procedures have been gone through though the fact that no finality has been reached does not bother anyone.

This is a far cry from what obtains in the western countries. When the Barings Bank was bankrupted by a rogue trader called Nick Leeson, no time was lost in establishing his guilt and awarding condign punishment. He was duly imprisoned and released when the sentence was completed. He reinvented his life and is now one of the most sought after speakers on Risk Management. This is not an isolated case where justice was delivered in time, finality was reached and life moved on.

In India however such cases are few and far between. Resolution of the Satyam company's persona is one such rare event. (Of course, punishment of the fraudsters may not happen anytime soon.The lower court which is now seized of the criminal matter will take a lot more time to pronounce judgement. After that the promoters will certainly go on appeal to higher courts and ensure indefinite delay in judicial proceedings.) The company is not comatose only because the government took extraordinary pains to "showcase" our ability to wriggle out of a crisis.

It is too soon to forget how the Global Trust Bank was systematically plundered by the promoters who are yet to face justice. Indians have an enormous tolerance for lack of finality. Why is this so? Is this because we believe in rebirths and therefore look for continuity from one birth to the next and take it for granted that what is unfinished in the present birth will come to fruition in subsequent births ? Whereas the westerners seek to close their life accounts in what they believe to be the one and only birth, Indians tend to carry over from birth to birth and look for finality at the end of eternity which by definition never occurs.

"On Being Certain"

Certainty has always been a mirage. Ancient Indians prayed that they be delivered from untruth to Truth, darkness to Light and from mortality to Immortality. They did not seek deliverance from uncertainty to Certainty. They had the Wisdom to seek only what was possible.

It is exciting to be introduced to the book written by Robert A.Burton, a neurologist entitled 'On Being Certain : Believing you are Right even when you're not'.

It is counter-intuitive that 'certainty' is just another 'feeling' like anger, pride etc.It is incorrect to posit a choice between reason and sense of purpose. One without the other is barren and irrelevant. "Cynical zeitgeist of valuing science over compassion" is good word-play, but misleading. Science is not a compassionless monster.To claim that the belief regarding soul outlasting body is counter to the evidence is dense and imprecise.What evidence do we look for in a matter of faith that cannot be disproved either? If "studies have shown that sham arthroscopic surgery can allow some patients to walk comfortably again", either they were not real patients or the studies lack credibility.Fitzgerald is right in saying that the test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. The caveat that these ideas must both be yet to be disproved remains conveniently unsaid."Our knowledge of the world around us is limited by fundamental conflicts in how our minds work" is a partial understanding of man's modest endowment vis-a-vis mystery of the universe. "The need to tolerate the unpleasantness of uncertainty" is a meek acceptance of reality. The book is thought-provoking.