A place where labourers work hard and build up beautiful dwellings for us. The view from my balcony enables me to observe the happenings in and around a building construction site and also the living pattern of these hard core workers residing there.Well to begin with, it's morning time around 10.45 am. What all I can hear is irritating sound of various machines which are employed in the construction of the building. There are many more things that I can see, hear and understand by looking at this construction site.

First of all I would like to talk about the greenery all around. The entire construction site is surrounded by multiple coconut trees loaded with fresh looking coconut and a few mango trees as well. The fresh coconuts are so tempting. One definitely gets an urge to drink its blissful coconut water. This place showcases abundance of nature all around it. A place nurtured by nature to the fullest. Enrichment of the trees and the greenery gives you a very soothing feeling. Along with the green life here, a lot of birds add to the beauty of this place and makes it look and sound even more interesting and energetic.  During morning time this place looks its best with abundance  fresh air, birds chirping, rising sun. It’s very delightful to watch it.

 Moving on, since it’s a construction area I can see materials like cement, bricks, iron rods, water pipes, wooden sticks, mud, hammer, ploughs, trolleys, andwooden sticks, mud, hammer, ploughs, trolleys, and many more tools and other things all over. The machines when operated become an extreme irritant for all the people in the nearby residents. The building has completed almost two storey’s. A lot of workers have been employed here. They all are busy doing their work. Undoubtedly these workers do a lot of tedious work and are extremely hard working. While observing them I saw a worker standing at an extreme edge of a rod and managing to do his work confidently like stunt man accomplishing his work also singing aloud with a high pitch his favorite  bollywood tracks. Somehow they manage to entertain themselves while working . They talk aloud , sing a listen to music and radio mostly . All these workers mostly talk and speak at a very high pitch. Almost all posses smart phones and whenever they have conversations with someone on phone, its so loud that everyone around the nearby buildings can make make out what what he or she is talking about.

While observing them working ,  a thought rolled to my mind, i thought this can be the best workout place for some of us who uselessly waste a lot of our energies working out in gyms where actually we do not create anything  fruitful. Anyways just a thought ,further  would like to talk about the attires of these hard core workers. They are dressed in ragged and filthy clothes, actually this seems to be their working attire. After the completion of their work they manage to wear something that looks a little decent. 

Since this is a building construction site project a lot of workers have shifted here with their families. Their wife’s support and work along with these workers too. Its delightful watching them earning and living their lives with dignity. They work hard throughout the day and then like any other working man or woman  go back to their home which is actually the same building construction area and some tents build around. At night time all these workers with their gather together at a common place then they gossip together for long ,they laugh aloud , also they listen to music together especially their favorite music  is mostly the 70’s- 80’s bollywood music. Together they enjoy and cherish and live a normal happy life despite all the hardships.

These workers make such beautiful and highly furnished dwellings for us. Like banjara’s  on completion of one construction project they move to another place with their families in search for a new place to earn their living. Truly these people have a very important place in our society.

Bose in Indian Psyche

Indians respect Bose a lot, but then let us also accept the fact that we are hero worshipers and look for heroes everywhere. One reason is that we have had very few victors who could be role models for Indians down the last 900 years. What I am going to write emerged after a  discussion with a well known History professor of a leading University, who incidentally is a school mate of mine. He has written books, but its not appropriate to take his name here.  I will however give his view which is also incidentally mine own. 

Bose and Hitler

Bose first went to Germany to seek the help of Hitler in the liberation of India. Germany was a Fascist state which believed in racial theory of superiority of the German race. Hitler in his " Mien Kampf" ( My Struggle) has opined that British rule was good for India as Indians were not capable of self government. He had nothing but contempt for Indians. Just see that Bose landed in Germany in April 1941 and repeatedly requested for a audience with Hitler, but Hitler had no time for him and kept him waiting for over a year, before he met him in 1942. This was the importance that Hitler attached to Bose.

Fascists Policies

Another fact worth pondering is that any country like France, Russia or Greece conquered by Hitler's army were not given any freedom of any type. They were made colonies and repression was let loose as the Nazi looted these nations. For arguments sake if Hitler had invaded India, would he have given any freedom to the people who he held in contempt? It's naive to think that Hitler would have brought freedom to India.

Bose and Japan

Coming to Japan. It was also a imperialist state with Fascist leanings and  believing that  the Japanese race  was superior to all others. They behaved in a similar manner as the Germans and when they occupied China, they let loose a terrible oppression. They set up an independent republic of Munchkow under the last emperor of China Pu Yi,  but he was just a puppet. The Japanese controlled China and inflicted terrible atrocities. One has read about the rape of Nanking when the Imperial army raped and killed over a million Chinese. This is a fact of history. Incidentally they had promised freedom to the Chinese and talked of a co -prosperity sphere. Where did it go?

In other countries of SE Asia which they occupied their conduct was terrible. They carried out mass scale massacres in the Philippines and Malaya. In Burma they turned on the Burmese national Army led by Ne Win and despite occupying Burma, gave no freedom to the Burmese people.

Japanese and Andaman islands

The Japanese  occupied and were supposed to have given " freedom" to the Andaman Islands in 1942. But there was only a nominal head from the Indian National army and power was in the hands of the Japanese army. The massacres of Indians in the Andaman islands are well known. Worse when Bose visited  Port Blair in 1944, Indian wanted to apprise  Bose of the atrocities of the Japanese army, but he turned a blind eye so intent he was in capturing Delhi.

Let us also understand that Bose could not cause any defection of any great magnitude in the Indian army. If figures have a meaning 2.5 million Indians fought for the English, but the INA had only 40,000 soldiers at the maximum.( Just 2 divisions). These divisions were also not properly equipped by the Japanese with tanks and guns as they never trusted the INA. One cannot forget that the INA commander General Mohan Singh was imprisoned by the Japanese in an island off Rangoon, when he differed with them.

Last word

Keeping their occupation of China in mind and the treatment of Pu Yi and other places in SE Asia, where is the chance that if they had conquered India, they would have given freedom to Indians and Bose? More likely Bose would have been "bumped" off as they did to so many other leaders, Bose was thus naive, that he would be leading India  to freedom on the backs of the Japanese and the Germans.  Both nations were worse imperialists and the English and Gandhi realised this. That is the reason he declared that he would never support Fascism. It is on record, that Gandhi was aware that the fascists would never give India freedom.

The end of Bose

So what about Subhash Bose? We have romantic notions about him, but the great historian William Duff dismisses him as a man of no consequence in world history. There is no doubt that Bose seriously miscalculated  by joining the Fascist powers. That was his undoing and for that reason Stalin did not forgive him. There is ample evidence that he escaped to Russia and was imprisoned there and finally died a POW. This is a sad tale, but History means learning from the past and Bose did a blunder by joining the Fascists. In that respect Gandhi realised the danger better  and went against them. In a way he supported the British war effort.  All said and done, I also admire the courage of Bose, but its a good thing the Japanese did not win, otherwise a worse tyranny would have been imposed on India. Was Bose a Japanese stooge ? Justice Katju former Judge of the Supreme court thinks so, one may or may not agree with him..

One knows that it needs a mirror to show how one looks. Thus, what outside people feel about India and Kashmir in particular  can best be gauged only by meeting and listening to the people living outside India. I have been singularly lucky of having spent a fair amount of time abroad. Presently for over 2 years I am in Abu Dhabi and  also visit Mumbai. My general impression is that most persons I have met feel India has a very weak claim to Kashmir.

This bit of information may startle many readers on this site, but the fact is that over the decades  India and its political leadership have greatly weakened the Indian case. To start with many people have asked me why is there an armed insurrection in the valley. To my reply that it is Pakistan sponsored terrorism, the reply is that almost 90% of captured and killed Mujahadeen are local Kashmiri youth. This unfortunately is a fact and the fact remains that Pakistan may support the terror groups, yet the movement in the valley is sustained  by local youths.

The second point that always crops up  is that India itself considers Kashmir a disputed territory. That is why it discusses the Kashmir problem with Pakistan. Does India discuss the integration of Hyderabad state with anybody they ask, though Hyderabad was taken over by military force that created a situation that forced the Nizam to accede to India? Yet India discusses the future of Kashmir with Pakistan and worse the Kashmir issue remains as unfinished business on the UN agenda. After all the Indians themselves led by Nehru approached the UN for a solution to the Kashmir issue.

Another point raised is, ( though only by the educated elite, as others don't know about it) that why the Indians have a separate constitution  for Kashmir and a separate flag. Does any other Indian state have a separate constitution and flag? Thankfully not many know about Article 370, but they know that India allows Kashmir to have a separate identity.

All this is depressing to hear and one wonders what was the aim of the Indian leadership and Nehru at that time. However there are no excuses and blaming Nehru won't do. The question is why the successive Indian leaders allowed the Kashmir issue to continue to simmer? Why the folly of Nehru was not corrected.

I wonder how long we can continue in this vein. The Muslim world feels India must make an accommodation on Kashmir as after all India itself accepts that accession of Kashmir to India is not full and final. Any takers for this?

Communication is our greatest source of power, the most significant characteristic of mankind. Success of a manager depends more on his ability to communicate than any other skill. It is a process involving interchange of facts, view-points and ideas between persons placed in different positions to achieve understanding through effective communication. Through communication skill to work is brought in touch with will to work and both combined together lead to team work in the organization. Communication involve feelings, emotions, interests, experiences, ideas and attitudes.

Effective communication is a flash of lightening and even often more illuminating. It enables us to see others and make ourselves seen and known. It is a distinctive human characteristic and sets one man apart from another. Without communication we cannot live or work together in an organized way or pass ideas, innovations and inventions from generation to generation. It is no exaggeration if we say that good managers are good communicators and poor managers are usually the opposite. If we analyse the genesis of any crisis that in an industry, leading to strained labour management relations, we find that it generally arises from gaps in communications. It has been established that an average human-be' time talks for nearly 27 years which, if recorded 10,000 books of 400 pages each. It has also per average human-being spends 80 to 90% of his working time in communicating with others out of which 60% is spent in talking or lightening and 20 to 30% in reading and writing.

An organization is the coordination of the number of individuals, for the achievement of some common explicit goals. It is of utmost importance that policies, objectives which an organization has to follow are suitably communicated to its workforce so that they are able to carry out their work in accordance with the guidelines laid down. Therefore, communication is an essential function of management and all the managerial activities such as planning, organizing, directing, coordinating and controlling can only be implemented successfully, if they are communicated effectively. Communication system is the life blood of any organisation and its main purpose is to effect change to influence action. In any organisation the main problem is of maintaining effective communication process. The management problems generally result from poor communication. Serious mistakes are made because orders are misunderstood.

The basic problem in communication is that the meaning which is actually understood by one person may not be what the other intend to send. It must be realised that the speakers and listeners are two separate individuals having their own limitation and number of things may happen to distort the message that pass between them. The success of anyone who manages, depends more on his ability to communicate than on any other skill. Communication is not a substitute for good management but it requires a good management to operate it effectively and efficiently. Managerial actions are more significant than words, which means actions take priority in all communications; hence action must precede and follow the communication. In all communications, we must be result-oriented. We must, therefore, put conscious efforts in making our communication objectives result oriented. We must remember that the first requisite for effective communication is preparing ourselves to receive the communication in its true spirit. There is a saying: Give every man thin ear, but few thy voice. We must communicate in clear, concise and complete ways because impatience in communication might spoil the job. While following up we must listen with inner ear if we really want to know the inner man, his motivation and difficulties. A well, informed person is likely to put his best skill and ability to achieve the task.

Communication involves two persons and hence the psychological set up of the individuals plays a great part in communication. The perception of the situation can help or hinder the correct interpretation of the message. One's own wants and needs govern his interest in sending, understanding and interpreting communication. It is, therefore, necessary that while preparing a message, the arrangement of the ideas should be such that ideas are well supported, well organized and well planned. With the advancement of technology the changes have become a regular feature in an industrial undertaking. The prime objective of setting up a communication system is to exchange facts and information in a manner which is acceptable to all concerned and which will lead to willing and cooperative action. Problems of passing information from management to workers are very complicated and many techniques are applied to encourage an easy two-way flow of facts, ideas and opinions. But attitude of the persons involved in communication is equally important for better communication which will ultimately lead to better productivity and an atmosphere of mutual trust and confidence amongst workers and managers. If the communication system is carefully planned and applied it will reduce worker's' resistance to the acceptance of new ideas and changes.

Communication problems are more complex in large organizations. Managers find it difficult to maintain effective communication to pass message accurately without distortion to their subordinates. Effective communication is a broader process than merely passing orders and keeping people informed about the activities and various decisions of the organization. Organizational Communication should satisfy the needs of organization and its members. It should not become a burden, but a source of satisfaction. In any organization communication must be developed as a system. The communication system itself requires planning, organizing, coordination and control. The control is to be experienced on the type of information that is to be given and such information should be communicated in a manner that it is understood by the person concerned.

The overall position regarding upward communication in the organization does not appear to be too satisfactory. During the course of personal interview with several executives in a public sector organization it has been found that many subordinates particularly those at supervisory level, are very much critical of their superiors who according to subordinates have indifferent attitude towards upward communication. Superiors mainly rely upon authoritative action in securing information from their subordinates rather than motivating them properly. Positive managerial action to promote and support upward communication as such becomes essential in this organization. Identification of various obstacles and bottlenecks to upward communication as such is essential. Thus the communication procedures need to be much more improved in order to maintain good working atmosphere with increased productivity in public sector.