Of leadership’s reward

Date :23-Jul-2019

By Vijay Phanshikar

.....

Lagi kuchh aisee nazar bakhira sheesesa

shahar

(An evil glance, shattered the commune like a mirror)

Apno ke mele mein meet nahi paata hoon

(I find no pal in my own congregation)

Geet nahi gataa hoon

(No longer do I sing a song)

.....

- An excerpt from

a short Hindi poem,

‘Do Anubhutiyan’,

by Atal Behari Vajpayee

Of leadership’s reward SUCH captivating verse emerges when a poet reaches the dizzying height of human achievement -- which Atal Behari Vajpayee did. What a grief! That lonesomeness in the thicket of his own commune, his own people, is so profound, so hurting, that the poet stops singing his own hymn!! This is a universal grief, though. Every person who seeks a heightened performance, a high level of achievement, a residence in an elevated zone suffers from that lonesomeness. In his own commune, surrounded by his kin, he is alone, without a pal, without a cohort to offer comfort of closeness, warmth of togetherness. Every leader -- in politics, in arts, in science, in adventure, in sports, in literature -- gropes in an area grey and grim for a pal, for a comrade and rarely finds one.

This, however, is a euphemism -- or a contradiction in terms -- that the leader, the man at the peak may find a friend -- a meet. Or, if at all somebody really, really, really finds one, that’s a great good luck! But otherwise, the story is one of lonesomeness ... ... Apno ke mele mein meet nahi pata hoon ...! One cannot miss, though, the silver lining to this. Each leader learns, with effort, with positive energy, to script his own hymn. That does take time, but slowly and surely the hymn starts taking shape -- in his inner core, in the sanctum of his being.

The inner voice emerges and lends his existence in the terribly secluded, frighteningly rarified zone a meaning only he understands. At that point, the hymn emerges in fullness. This is a slow -- and painful -- process, however. It takes a long time -- to extricate sense in the nonsense of a surrounding shattered like a mirror, traumatised by an evil glance. Once the leader endures this trauma, he learns to find meaning in things, and also to find expression to his lonesome emotion.

Slowly, then, a hymn -- his own -- emerges from the depths of his core, in the form of a melody that sings like temple chimes. From that point on, a silent song always runs on his unparted lips that offer a smile that is visible only to senses. From that point on, as has happened in most cases, the leader or the high performer may not sing a song openly, but hum a hymn that lights up his own soul. This is leadership’s actual reward.