Indispensable???

Ram had left Ayodhya and gone into forest exile. Bharat had yet to return from his uncle's house. Dashrath lay dying in the palace. He turned to his wife, Kaushalya, and said, "What will happen to Ayodhya without me. Can I afford to die?" To this Kaushalya replied, "Nothing will happen. The sun will rise and set. People will go about doing their duties. There will be joy and sorrow, frustration and excitement, hope and despair, as there always was. Everyone thinks the world cannot exist without him. But it does."

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Every day organizations hire new people and old people leave the company, either angrily, or happily or because they have no choice. This is birth of a new employee and death of an old employee. Both events are filled with insecurity. The arrival of a new employee threatens the old discourse, and so there is need to induct the new into the old ways of the company. The departure of the old employee also threatens the old discourse hence the desperate need for a talent pool and pipeline.

Very rarely does an individual determine the fate of an institution. There is always someone who can take his place. It is a thought that invalidates human beings and so no one wants to accept it. Vermaji had served the company as an accountant for over thirty-eight years. He was famous for managing the accounts so well that the owner of the company felt he was indispensible. So did Vermaji. But then the owner of the company died. And his nephew took over. And the nephew did not think too much of Vermaji. He was given a nice salary and a nice cabin but no real work.

Vermaji was furious and submitted his resignation later in a huff, which was accepted without even the pretense of a resistance. "Let me see how they solve the accounts," he said as he left the building the last time. Five years have since passed. Vermaji is waiting for his new management to call him back. They have not. They have managed without him. It's a feeling he does not like.

The management did suffer a bit without Vermaji. But his absence created a vacuum and new talent emerged. That was a good thing. But now that apparently indispensible Vermaji has been replaced, those left behind in the company feel they too are dispensible. It is a feeling no one likes. Suddenly they all feel like "Full Time Equivalents" or FTE, numbers on an excel sheet, that can be deleted at any moment. Insecurity seeps into the organization. And in insecurity, everybody clings to their roles and responsibilities with tenacity. New talent is not allowed to come in and if they do come in they are not allowed to thrive. Everyone wants to make themselves indispensible. They will all die trying.

[The author is the Chief Belief Officer of the Future Group.]

Possibilities...

Life is strange. It gives you what you least expect from it. And it carries on... there is nothing that goes longer than life!!! It brings the most unexpected circumstances; mostly those which one could not even think about in dreams. Today was one such day. She had woken up to a beautiful morning.   A morning which looked fresh and held a promise... a promise of brighter things. Yes she had always thought about this morning. Most people would have been nervous. Would probably even have had sleepless nights. But not her. She was nothing less than ecstatic! Today would bring her that new sunshine that she had been waiting for all those years. Finally the wait will come to an end today. She got ready to leave for the office.

Her apartment started seeming a little crowded as she thought about the company she would have in the evening. She realised she would have to get rid of all the extra furniture that she had collected in the years. After all, post tonight, she would have someone to suggest what she should buy and what should be best left alone.. at the store. She wasn’t an impulsive buyer, but her eye for eclectic pieces had got her a lot of stuff that were actually not required. She wondered why she had never found the apartment cluttered before! Never mind. She had a million things to do today. And perhaps, by the end of the day, she would not be the only one in this place she called home! She smiled at the thought of possibilities.

A few years ago, Ashley had been another person altogether. She was an architect by profession and interior designing was her favourite hobby. She would not just build houses, she would decorate them according to the people who would live there. It was a job that gave her immense satisfaction. Anyone who knew her then would have described her as cold and unemotional. The thought of she getting married was beyond imagination. Even if she could have married, nobody would have thought possible for her to be a mother. She just wasn’t made for it. And then, she had gone ahead and surprised every single one of them. From the paparazzi to the neighbour next door... everyone was talking about her. The girl who had defied all rules! She stunned the city with her very public marriage to the very famous industrialist and well known playboy Stephen McCartney. And before the city had digested this piece of news, she had flouted every single rule in the rule book. She went ahead and adopted two children from the city orphanage. The city had looked at her stunned. Not that people didn’t adopt. But who would have thought that Ashley Williams McCartney would adopt two kids even before she celebrated her first month anniversary!!!

But looking back, it was the best decision of her life. And today after waiting for four years, her daughters would be finally home! Oh! How she missed Alice and Kate Williams! How she loved to even think about them. her daughters.

The marriage had lasted four months. Exactly the time she required to adopt the kids. Now she recalled how grateful she had been to Stephen. He was the sweetest friend. The paper had had a field day when they had declared their divorce. But only Ashley and Stephen knew why they had decided to tie the knot. And she would always be grateful to Stephen for being there and understanding, when the entire world was against her. They might call him a playboy but she knew what lay behind this exterior. Thinking about all this brought a tear in her eye. Finally Alice would be home, to meet their mom... after four years. She wondered if they would recognise her! Would they come running to hug her? Or would they wait for Stephen to give them the signal to come to her?

The thought of meeting them had her so excited! As she drove down to meet them, she realised she hadn’t even bought them a gift! It was after all their birthday! Driving past Walmart, she decided to get them a small something. The big things could wait till they got back to the apartment. She did have a surprise party planned for them! As she parked at the lot, she realised she was running late. Her meeting with her team was due in forty minutes. Since she was taking the entire week off, she had to brief them. The Hathaway Project couldn’t go out of schedule! Her team was able and confident. Surely they could handle things for one week without her! As she rushed to the meeting from Walmart, she thought about all the things that had to happen this week. The pillars of the building were already in place. In a week’s time, the team should be able to get to the second floor for the rooms. After all the ground and the first floor only had the nursery, kitchen, dining area and the ballroom. As she thought about the nursery, she wondered what kind of decor would the Hathaways want for their babies. Would they go for the all in all stereotype nursery? Or would they be bold and go for something new? She decided she had to convince them about the new concept she had while she was working on Alice and Kate’s room. They would love it once they see how beautifully it will turn out.

She was so busy in her musings that she didn’t see the red convertible coming from the left. It had steered wrong on the ice, and try as much as he could, the driver just could not get the car to stop. Before Ashley had time to register what was coming at her, the car struck hers with full force. The impact was such that the nearby cars were not spared by the clash.

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Ashley opened her eyes to find everything strange around her. She could not understand where she was. She tried to recall what had happened. All she could remember was being hit by a car. So she muct be in a hospital. She tried to make head or tail of the place she was in. She could see Alice and Kate. They had both grown up so much! When did her little girls become so old? Time had flown away so fast. But why were they crying? She was here beside them. They shouldn’t be crying. It was wrong... somehow it was very wrong. And then she saw what they were crying over. It was she. On the bed. There were flowers all around. The girls were dressed in black. They were mourning!