The Vulture Is A Very Patient Bird, Indeed!!

Office politics is not a dirty word at all.

It is part and parcel of our work culture in all offices across the globe.

I have observed from very close quarters how the juniors try to impress their supervisors, managers and the top guys at workplace.

This is something universal whether with office or with politics!

I always wonder whether quality work, creativity and hard work did matter as much as the ability to manage people and situations. If a person could combine both then you have a winner in hand.

1.
Take for example the Ex-IT minister, Mr.Raja's rise to the top! According to his mentor he was like any other budding lawyer, struggling to pay even his telephone bills in the rented office, not so long ago. Yet he rose to an enviable position to grant licences for 2G, 3G and what have yous, for an entire nation like India!
His people skills played a more important role than his abilities. News is trickling in about his meteoric rise to the top. He is supposed to have taken personal care of the late Murasoli Maran, (2nd in command in the DMK, a political party in Tamil Nadu) being at the beck and call of his star patient without second thoughts. He rose in the party later due to his proximity to the top cadres of the DMK. What an irony of fate that he was chosen to replace Maran's son, Dayanidhi Maran as the IT Minister by the CM Karunanidhi, in due course of time!!
Of course what happened after he became a union minister is not the topic I wish to discuss here.

All I would like to stress is how people make themselves useful to the powerful, at times sacrificing their own comforts and ambitions for the time being. All this, until they hit big time. In each and every case its the patience alongwith perseverance which seems to pay off ultimately. Remember the vulture is a very patient bird, indeed.

I have two more case histories to mention below before I wind up for the day:

2.
Another case is that of how the Late Smt.Priyamvada Birla was charmed by the care, attention and help rendered by the Birla family's chartered accountant, the Late Shri.Lodha who also passed away recently, though as a very rich man indeed.
Lodha used to reserve his entire time and energy to this elderly, childless widow who was ailing for many years. Left to herself, all alone in a palace full of servants and with very rare visits from own family members who lived nearby, she was made very much a part and parcel of Lodha's family. The other family members never came to give her company or enquire after her welfare, but tried to fight this clever man who usurped what belonged to PB which ran into billions of rupees. She willed it to him and this was fiercely contested in the Kolkata High Court between the Birla family and Lodha on the death of PB. Wills, Probates, et al.

3.
I should mention Smt.Lakshmi Parvati, a divorcee, who married the famed, but strict widower who had a very clean image where women were concerned, Shri.N.T.Rama Rao, a popular, evergreen hero of Telugu films and founder of Telugu Desam, a powerful political Party in Andhra Pradesh.
Smt.LP came to do her thesis on NTR's films and life and went on to become his life partner and advisor during his ailing last few years.
NTR is believed to have even mentioned in one of his interviews to a magazine that she cared for him when his family members did not even visit him out of courtesy to see how he was getting along in his old age.

What these families cannot understand is how can their rich and famous family member give away their family wealth to a rank outsider who just takes care of them in their old age or ailment? The belief is that the family wealth should remain within the family even if members don't take care of the needs or attend to these elderly people from within. If care is given from within then where is the need for any outsider to come in? This simple philosphy is never followed.

What is right and who is right? No one can say anything on this. But we can see that its all about money, money and money.

What brings people together? Initially it all begins as sympathy, listening to the woes of the other person. Doing those little things for a person which others might take for granted. A bond is formed due to this whether such actions are genuine or not, the fact is that a human needs another human to interact with. Money involved is secondary to the person who has the money, but it becomes primary for the person who does little things for the moneyed person to get into the inner circle.

Am I being cynical about the whole thing? I have observed this for long enough and know the pattern instantly. At times I do wonder whether the moneyed fellow is ignorant of what's happening? No. (S)he may not be that ignorant but with time they get used to the attention, care, help and affection from any person and later get addicted to it. They throw all caution and all feelings for their own near and dear who don't seem to care anyway, who don't have time for them, otherwise why should these people turn to strangers for help, care, affection and attention?!

Life goes on.

Mahalakshmi.