Calmness in Chaos
by TSK. Raman

This is a story from an Author who name is unknown:  
Once upon a time there was a king who ruled a certain country and was known far and wide for the way in which he ruled his land always seeking the welfare of his subjects.
Also known for his artistic tastes, he decided to hold a competition for painters. On a fixed day painters came from far and wide to display their skills. With all humility he was endowed with, he acknowledged them and urged them to create the best they can.
The competition began and all the artists assembled there began their painting.
After about three or four hours all of them had painted what they had conceived.
The king went about seeing all of them and spent time talking to each of the creators to understand their creations.
Some of them had painted beautiful landscapes, some painted the mountains, some the seas, some the stars and the sky, some the villages and the scenes etc.
All of them were beautiful in their own way.
It was now time for making the decision and announcing who was the best.
After he saw every one of the paintings, and evaluating the paintings on their merits, he chose to award one painting that projected a thunderous waterfall, with strong winds blowing the trees and heavy dark clouds hovering in the sky. Amidst this chaos, just near the falls was a bird's nest in which the older bird was feeding its child.
The painters and people were pretty surprised about the king's choice and one of them dared to ask the king for the logic behind his selection.
The king replied, he chose to award that painting the best because he saw "Calmness in Chaos." Amidst, the thunderous waterfall, the violent winds, bending trees, impending storm, a bird unmindful of all the chaos around it was feeding its child as if nothing is happening around it. Everyone applauded the king for his wisdom and choice.

THE PREGNANT DEER 
- is another such story a beautiful one too!
In a forest, a pregnant deer is about to give birth. 
She finds a remote grass field near a strong-flowing river. 
This seems a safe place. 
Suddenly labour pains begin.
At the same moment, dark clouds gather around above & lightning starts a forest fire. 
She looks to her left & sees a hunter with his bow extended pointing at her. 
To her right, she spots a hungry lion approaching her.
What can the pregnant deer do? 
She is in labour! 
What will happen? 
Will the deer survive? 
Will she give birth to a fawn? 
Will the fawn survive? 
Or will everything be burnt by the forest fire? 
Will she perish to the hunters' arrow? 
Will she die a horrible death at the hands of the hungry lion approaching her? 
She is constrained by the fire on the one side & the flowing river on the other & boxed in by her natural predators.
What does she do? 
She focuses on giving birth to a new life.
The sequence of events that follows are:
- Lightning strikes & blinds the hunter.
- He releases the arrow which zips past the deer & strikes the 
hungry lion.
- It starts to rain heavily, & the forest fire is slowly doused 
by the rain.
- The deer gives birth to a healthy fawn.
What can such stories tell us in modern times where we are all living in a chaotic world.

My thoughts on that...
It is undeniable that we are caught up with many things every given day. Man has created things by learning, understanding and using technology, which has definitely made our lives comfortable. However, the fact is, we are all living life in a mad rush, forgetting the fact that we do things to make a living, and, we ought not to make our living be dominated by those things we created around us for convenience.

Can we imagine living in a world of today minus the mobile, the computer, the internet etc.?

The answer would be an emphatic, "No."

Accepted.

But did people in the not so long ago past live minus these gizmos and did they not go to create some things that enable mankind take a big step forward in civilization like for instance – invention of wheel, saw a revolution of creations like the carts, cycles, trains, cars, etc. that enabled him go distances in lesser time. Looking at the birds and wanting to fly man made his flight in the sky on an aero plane and taking it all forward he also landed on the moon. The radio, the telephone, T.V. etc., was all man's creations much before the technology revolution. All of this was because of his curiosity and so the Edison's, the Einstein's, the Graham Bell's etc., are all people who are remembered even to this day.

Suddenly over the last two decades or so everything seems to have changed so drastically that we would be left behind if we are not able to upgrade ourselves.

And that is the right thing to do.

However, too much of everything is 'bad,' they say and that's what the state of our lives is today.

We seemed to get worked up very easily - we get upset if the
・E mobile signals don't reach your mobile
・E mobile stops working because of a technical problem
・E computer hangs while working
・E internet is down
・E the chosen internet sites do not open

These are just a few examples cited on how we react when things go wrong. After all these are all our own creations. The ripple effects of these failures have a bearing on the way we react and the we behave be it at work, or the house or where ever. We have become very short-fused, we have lost control over ourselves. Everyone blows out at the slightest. Like things can go wrong very quickly our relationship too go wrong easily. Divorces, suicides, misunderstandings, arguments etc., are all a result of our dependencies and the way they work.

I do not want to suggest that am old-fashioned in my thinking, nor would I want to start saying anything like, "In those days..." I do not deny that technology has done wonders to our living, however, I would like to urge people to keep it under limits and also enjoy things around them.

Maybe we can learn from the deer. 

The priority of the deer, in that given moment, was simply to give birth to a baby.
The rest was not in her hands & any action or reaction that changed her focus would have likely resulted in death or disaster.
Ask yourself,
Where is your focus?
Where is your faith and hope? 
In the midst of any storm, do keep it on God always. 
He will never ever dissapoint you. NEVER. 
Remember, He neither slumbers nor sleeps...

Be it that way, as here too the same rule will apply 20% of the people all over the world look after the welfare of the other 80%.

Decide whether you would want to be among the 20% or the 80% it's your life anyway, but we are interested in ing mankind survive. We owe it to the generation that it is yet to come, we want to leave this earth much the same way as we inherited.

MAKING A CRICKET BALL AND MAKING OF AN ORGANIZATION

The effectiveness of any communication is to speak the language that your audience understands. 
On being invited once to a Business School and asked to talk to the young people, I began the talk and asked them, "What is their understanding of what an Organization is?"

As it always is, the responses were wide, varied, and quite filled with jargon, it was natural because they were students pursuing their MBA. Acknowledging and appreciating their responses, I sought their permission to present what I thought I could explain to them in "simple terms" and that in a language all of them will understand. Naturally therefore I chose the "cricket ball" as a 'metaphor to explain what I had in mind. Cricket as you all know is quite like "religion" in India, the most unifying factor.

Wondering what’s this all about ! 
And there you go, getting curious as what’s this all about, and what has it (MAKING A CRICKET BALL AND AN ORGANIZATION) got to do with your life – at least professional life.

Well read on and see what you can unfold.

Let us first get straight to the making of the not LESS than 156 g (5.5 oz) or MORE than 163 g (5.75 oz) “cherry.” That gets hurled through the 20 m (66 ft) long and about 3 m (10 ft) wide strip, which beats the best, which also gets beaten by the best.

Cricket Ball: Has a “kernel” which is the “core,” if you may wish to call. It is a spherical corky-wooden-soft nut, it actually is the nut of an ‘oak.’ Solid but not unbreakable, needs a big hammer to crack it.

Organization : Now take the case of an organization which also believes in having a “core.” Most well run organizations have a solid “core,” not unbreakable again but it needs terrific effort for anyone to break it.
Cricket Ball: The “core” of the ball is made of alternating layers of cork and wool layer after layer.

Organization : The management team the middle level, the junior level and then the juniors are all bound layer by layer by “values, trust, integrity, honest, sincerity, purpose …etc

Cricket Ball: When the wrap attains a size not larger than 23 cm (9 in) in circumference, it gets covered with four pieces of leather, shaped like orange quarters, sewn together along an equatorial seam. The stitching is raised lightly. It then gets dyed usually red and polished to obtain the shine.

Organization : When the core gets wrapped to a certain wieldy size it gets sewn up by “policies” and “culture” then a lot of transmission takes place between everyone in the organization to make it “shine”
Cricket Ball: When the ball gets ready it has to pass through a “Ball Gauge,” an instrument used by the umpires in the game to check whether the size of the cricket ball meets the standard measurements mandated by the Laws of Cricket. It is usually in the form some what like a pair of “hand-cuffs” with two connected rings: one ring has a minimum acceptable diameter, through which the ball should not pass and the other ring has the maximum acceptable diameter through which the ball should pass. If the ball cannot pass through minimum diameter, or passes through the minimum diameter, or gets out of shape, the umpires should replace the ball. The replacement ball is ideally an old ball which was used in some match before for a comparable number of overs as the ball being replaced, so that it has had approximatly the same amount of use and wear as the old ball.

Organization : Any organization after formation passes through a severe test for survival. It can’t afford to be too aggressive nor can it afford to be less aggressive. And it has the various governing bodies that keep monitoring whether the guidelines provided are followed and that there are no violations.

Only here it differs from the ball as one organization which falters doesn't get replaced by another, but it has to be formed all over again.

Cricket Ball: You need to practice hard, train well to learn how to use the “cherry” to do well game after game, consistently to attain the heights of the greats that played the game, and well too.
What Kapil Dev, Richard Hadlee, Muthiah Muralidharan, Anil Kumble, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Imran Khan, Dale Styne, Ravichandran Aswin......and the list goes on endlessly, do is to stick hard to the basics of “line and length.” It is because they do this time and time again and put their heart and soul into game applying “focus and concentration,” that results speak for themselves and these people became as great as they did or do…

Organization : People in the growing “organization” have to work hard, and put to use all that they learnt through their education from the school to the highest professional degree each goes to attain. They practice “fair play” and look after everyone with care.

What the leaders of successful companies like the Tata Group, Birla Group, Wipro, Infosys, the TVS,.. list goes on endlessly and the so many successful leaders of several others successful organization world over, do, is to stick hard to the basics of 'line' - “values, trust, integrity, honest, sincerity, purpose, length and the longevity.” It is because they do this time and time again and put their heart and soul into the enterprise applying “focus and concentration,” that results speak for themselves and these people became as great as they did or do…

Finally A Cricket Ball: Very hard from the “outside” and “soft” from the inside “core.” It also has a life.

Finally An Organization: Very hard from the “outside” because they have to succeed and show results and “soft” from the inside “core” because they are all human being behind the whole thing. Organizations too have a "life" only some go on to live more than their life time, that's why they get to be called the "Great Companies," - "Built to Last" as they would say.

So that’s that – the “Makings of a Cricket ball” and the “Makings of an Organization.”

This is the simplest I could get.