Leadership - Inherient or Position based?

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The events in our City over the past few months have left me wondering if leadership in India is wrongly equated with power, and if so, would that explain why our country, our society has no leaders to look up to?

I truly believe that leadership is an inherent quality, it is something you are born as. Yes, that skill can be honed, but you cannot develop leadership, if there is none to begin with. Because

You cannot teach someone to be passionate or fearless.

And that i feel is at the root of our leaderless society. Indians are far too busy being nice and polite to each other to be leaders. Inside we may be what ever we are, but rarely do we stand up to our bosses, our superiors, our so called leaders about issues that we feel strongly about. Because we are too busy working on our image management. The only time we raise our voice is when we are in mob, because then who is to say which voice belonged to

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which body..

Leadership extracts a heavy fee initially, it needs you to stand apart, be fearless, and also unpopular.

A lot of our Corporate leaders are "leaders" because there is no one to question them as they constitute the top management. Yes, they are answerable to stake-holders, so they do what all good managers should do. They grow profits, increase sales, and do all things that please stake-holders, but that does not make them a leader. Leadership comes out of crisis, which is when you see the boat floundering, the masks slipping.

Leadership relies on a strong mix of passion, gut, gumption, fearlessness, empathy and self-belief.

And it may so be that no matter how much self-help books and courses claim to put you up there with the best, your success as a leader may have been determined way back coded right into your genetic make-up.

Anger - is it really that bad?

Is anger really as bad as it is made out to be? Right from the ancient times, anger had been given a bad rap. It is one of the seven cardinal sins, philosophers and writers have warned us about the 'bad' repercussions of anger and while their wisdom may have some truth, the matter of the fact is that an angry person is seen as a leper, as someone who needs help.

People will rush around claiming to be well-wishers, asking them to calm down. And is ex

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actly what our Prime Minister Mr. Singh asked us to do yesterday on National Television. Calm Down.

Calm Down!!!.. WTF! America got attacked once, did they calm down? Does Israel calm down?

And how many times should we calm down, this is far from being a one -off instance now. Every three months, there is a terrorist attack somewhere in India.

It is because we 'calm down' that our politicians do not take the threat to our security seriously. Today morning as I made my way to work, I could see fear in the eyes of my fellow travellers. Their eyes scanned everyone who entered the bus. Their thoughts cannot be too hard to read.

My mind is occupied with the terror unfolding even as I type this. I am angry. My city deserves better. I deserve better. I do not work my a*** off, only to have taxes taken from me to pay for some sniveling money laundering politician's safety, which happens to be in jeopardy only because the idiot does know when to keep his mouth shut, and to leave me venerable to bloody terrorists.

A kick in the a*** to

1. Maharastrian politicians who attempt to divide us on the basis of states: Where the f**k is he when his beloved Bombay is burning? Where is he when the marathi manoos is showered with bullets while waiting to go home at VT/CST? Where is he when the heritage of Bombay goes up in smoke? Where are his followers who do not think twice before descending on the street when he is rightfully taken into police custody for breaking the law, but have scampered into their rat holes when the city needs them? If they're such desh bhakts, why don't they get trained and show Pakistan what it means to have a city bombed every three months.

Who is our real enemy? Is it people who come from the northern part of our own country, to earn a honest living or is it people who come from other countries to fire gun shots at us, to throw grenades at us, to burn our heritage sites, to kill our people?

2. The Morning News Anchor on Headlines Today: The guy went on and on yesterday morning (27th November barely 12 hours after the

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terror began) about how resilient Bombay is, and actually advised that we should go about our daily routine as if nothing is wrong and show the terrorists that they cannot affect us. This is when the police was advising everyone to stay at home. How can you make such irresponsible statements on Television?

And frankly why should we go about and pretend all is hunky-dory? It is not, let us grow up and face the facts. Our resilient spirit has served no good. It is just an escape mechanism, because we cannot face the reality, so let us all pretend all is normal, all is fine. If we all pretend it does not matter, maybe it will solve it self. Well it does not, it is time we stopped turning our face the other way.

3. People who say that Bombay has a very resilient spirit and will bounce back: I think it is time we stopped bouncing back, it is just because of this that the law-makers think we can be taken for granted. After all, we are a forgiving lot. There is no shame in declaring that we are scared. There is no need to pretend to be strong when the truth is every morning we wonder if we will make back home alive in the evening.

4. Politicians who use our tax to provide for their security: Bombay (I refuse to call it Mumbai) is the city which fills the coffers of Delhi. As the highest tax paying city, is this what we get in return. All our money is used to provide Z+ security to politicians and people like Sanjay Dutt whose lives are in danger thanks to their own mistakes. Why should I pay for their stupidness? Who is protecting me? I agree with Shobaa De, take the security from these people and provide it to the city. We need it more than them.

5. News anchors claiming that Advani & Singh travelling together heralds a new maturity in our political class: Barkha Dutt leads the pack here. I am a big fan of her fearless reporting, but Advani & Singh are doing us no favour by travelling together in the same plane. What we need is a leader who is fearless and aggressive, old fogies are unable to stop this terror.

And a Big Hug and Pat on the back to

1. The Bombay Police, The NSG and the ATS: They lay their lives on the line for us. They have been working tirelessly for the last 36 hours and we are still counting.

2. The news anchor on Aaj Tak: He was on a call with the home minister for state on live television on Wednesday post midnight. He

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asked the minister "How many sites have been attacked?". The minister cooly replies, "Just 2-3 sites, there is no need to worry. The situation is in control.". The news anchor lost it, he went ballistic. He screamed back, "Minister Sahib, aap kya baat kar rahe hain? Aap se zyada toh humare viewers jante hain. Attack 2-3 sites par nahi atleast 6 sites par hua hai. Aap government main hai, home minister hain, aap ko yeh bhi nahi pata ki attack kahan hua hai? aap humari security kya karenge?" The minister hung up.

3. Volunteers: Volunteers who have been working behind the scenes providing food, water and tea to the police posted outside the two hotels & the relatives waiting anxiously for their loved ones.

4. The Media: Yes, they sensationalise news. Yes, they are not prefect. But remember they are in their nascent form. And they have all been working non-stop providing us with news and updates. The Mumbai Mirror reported risked his life to capture pictures of the terrorists. And thanks to their relentless pressure live transmission and quick reporting, rapid action is possible.

5. Fellow Bombay Citizens: I have been speaking to people since morning. Yes, there are some people who still want to stay in their oysters. For whom all this is someone Else's nightmare. But these are few, and belong mostly to the generation born in the 60s & 70s. But the rest are infuriated, those belonging to my generation are angry, and want answers. They want to see the guilty punished. Eye for eye. No longer will we offer our other cheek. I think it is time for us to be angry.

And do vote in this election. We get the leaders we deserve. It does not make sense to not vote and then sit and crib about the leaders we get. Go out, vote, do not say "There is no choice, all are corrupt." Because that is the "suckers choice". There is now an option in the ballot which says "I support no-one". There is no excuse for not letting the parties know that you will not take bull - sh*ting spineless swindlers and murders for leaders any more.

Let this incident be the last time terrorists hold our lives ransom.

Jai Hind. Jai Maharashtra. Jai Bombay.

Monday Morning Blahs..

Monday Mornings.. Blah.

We've all felt that way, sometime or other. Even if we are following our passion of drilling into people's teeth or gazing into crystal balls. I am pretty sure some Monday Morning some hangman somewhere would have had a premonition that her/his day was gonna be pretty, well, you get the drift..

Here's a shocker: A recent study shows that while we may feel depressed on Mondays it is Wednesdays when we are actually bound to be in our foulest moods. You can read the study here: http://www.spring.org.uk/2008/05/mondays-are-not-as-depressing-as-you.php

My cow-orker (Ode to Dilbert) and I were discussing why this would be so, other than the Memory Bias explanation given in the article. Here is what we came up with:

1. Being aware of the fact that we might get nasty and try to whack some cow-orker on the head leading to some bad reputation, makes us more guarded in our reactions. In short, if we know we can be tempted, we are on our guard. But on Wednesdays, this guard goes on his weekly trip to the Prancing Ponies, leaving us lonely and hence more likely to give into temptation.

2. Monday Mornings typically don't have us facing too much work, cept on rare cases.. but on Wednesday, work is in full flow.. new projects have been assigned, old projects and bosses are back from their OBE status and pretty much short of Zeus striking you with his thunderblot, you have been hit by crap from all sides

3. Accumulation of sleep depravation. (my personal favorite): on Monday we have faced only one day on waking up early but by Wednesday we have faced three. This would make real crabby, don't know about you though.. Now you would say we should be at our worst on Thursdays and Fridays, see on Thursday we see the glimmer of Friday, and on Friday, well, it is laden with the promise of a sleepy Saturday..