Appreciation and Positive politics!

Okay! This is not something to do with principles of management. May be it is! I don't know. May be it's a little psychology, mere perception or a total myth. May be it's personal because it relates more to my behavior, rather my character. How well do we handle personal appreciation? A few gladly accepts them. A few cherishes them but pretends. A few underplay them. A few suspect and raise their eyebrows. A very few counter them diplomatically.

I am fine with all of it. I am not really worried about how people react to to good words. As long as they acknowledge it one way or the other I am glad. But there is a little curiosity in what people really feel when someone appreciates them. Most of the people around me including myself haven't got the maturity to handle appreciation. Rather we aren't sure how to react or respond.

I am very expressive. I argue a lot. I love talking. My vocabulary has got a lot in it that's not usual. I may sound a bit odd but I believe I am mostly sensible. I chide and appreciate wholeheartedly and I can do both to the same person at the same time. After all everyone has their share of good and bad and most importantly what I like in them and don't.

This becomes extremely challenging in the work atmosphere. People tend to perceive appreciation in a different manner. It's viewed as sheer politics when I appreciate someone's talent, the only reason being they are superiors to me. Assuming that it's quite normal for people from such a heirarchial culture and business ethics to view it that way, what's more surprising is that even colleagues of my cadre and my sub-ordinates tend to get suspicious when I appreciate them. The best part being, I gain nothing out of it.

I don't bother to prove that I am being genuine in my comments whenever I appreciate someone. Coz, people who understand can never complain and people who complain will never understand. But it irks and sometimes irritates when people fail to handle and acknowledge appreciation in the right way and pretend as if they didn't rejoice it. It just leaves me with three questions.

1) Aren't people sure about themselves and their traits?

2) Are people so dumb to differentiate a false appreciation from a genuine one? or Are they just being pretentious?

3) If 1 and 2 are true, do such people really deserve an appreciation? :-)

I don't know if I should really supress my desire to express my thoughts. What can help? Your thoughts? :-)

Revolution ;-)

I argue a lot. I am viewed as an obstinate persuader. I am not in a deep consideration to change my ways after all. If at all I quit, there is only one reason. The opposition is too dumb and adamant, highly insensible and can’t maintain relevance. Sometimes I am wrong. Strictly, only sometimes. I don’t like definitions qualifying the examples. It should be vice versa. When I tell you a statement and brief it with an example, if you bring in an absolutely irrelevant trait of the same example and initiate a new discussion deviating from the crux of the original problem statement, I get pissed off. Had it been 5 years back, I would have literally thrashed the person who does such an insensible thing. These days I am growing more patient. It’s on the verge of this happening; I usually quit an argument (for me it’s only a conversation). Not that I don’t have a point to make but pursuing further is insanity.

One of my friends asked, if you are so inclined about changing the ways of life with your talks, why don’t you create a revolution? Why don’t you become a revolutionary? Here’s what I told him

I don’t want to be a revolutionary because

I am born in India. I will loose all my happiness in life to become a martyr. Later, a chapter about me will appear in the 5th grade Tamil Language text book under the state board syllabus. Even my grandchildren won’t read it. Even if they do, they will scold me heartily. People will probably erect a statue for me in marina beach. Wait… there is no space already. Secondly I should have been a revolutionary in the Dravidian movement to deserve that, portraying Tamil to be the best language in the world, Tamil speaking people to be the most revered, feared and adored in the world apart from calling other languages, culture and communities a total crap. I am an Aryan by birth as per the rulers of my state. So I don’t qualify for that honor in first place. Even if it happens in the least probability, the crow will spit on me (my statue) every day. Politicians and other revolutionaries will honor my statue with a garland on my birth day and death day every year with a fake smile and crocodile tears. The crow’s act is far better than this. They will make and break the statue as the rulers change and revolt happens. First of all they will shoot me dead. OMG!!! How can I forget that?

Fine now, if I don’t get a statue, I will at least get a street named after me. The name board will be in the corner of the street where housewives will accumulate garbage, small children (only?) will excrete and dogs will piss off. The only benefit is that I would have become a part of the Indian history. I am already now :-)

I will have a small house in a remote village near Chennai which will become my memorial later. The dark and deserted place will function as a place of illegal and illicit activities like, pre-marital sex and drug smuggling, all through the year.

There are few other revolutionaries who aren’t my kind. They call themselves the people’s servant and have all their earnings (not from legal sources ofcourse) distributed amongst their relatives while they still lead a simple life and stay poor. They did the greatest sacrifices the world has ever seen. Don’t worry people will believe and the history will repeat. Who knows? May be they will become Gods after 100 years.

Instead I can choose this. A honest earning, a 6 digit salary, a 5 bedroom apartment, a 4 wheel drive, 3 good friends, 2 cute children and 1 sweet heart.

Hey wait a moment… before you go!

If the destiny has in it that I should become a revolutionary one day, then “SO BE IT!” :-)

வாழ்க்கை

அலை அடித்து துவைத்ததில் சாயம் போயிருக்கிறது என் சட்டை!

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