One more thing ! ......

Revisiting .. !!!

Hitam manohaaricha vachah durlabham.... Bharavi !

A good advice and pleasing speech may not go together !!

 What kind of a friend is he who cannot give a good advice !!

 What kind of leader is he who cannot hear a piece of good advice !!.

 A good adviser is one who will not tell a lie to please !!

These are part of a dialog in Bharavi's Kiratarjuniyam .

Bharavi is one of the foremost Poets in Sanskrit after Kalidasa. The Kiratarjuniyam consist of many more such gems .

Kiratarjuniyam starts with the spy deployed by Pandavas briefing Dharmaraja about the activities of the Duryodhana as the King. Bharavi uses this dialog to drive home some truths that are invariably missed by leaders. That Bharavi stated them is a proof of the existence of contrary behavior even in those days.

In any case the Vanechara , or the forester who acted as spy said in so many simple words -" I am your employee . It is my duty to tell you the truth . The truth may be pleasant or unpleasant . In either case I need to be forgiven because it is my duty to tell you the truth even if it hurts " .The Forester is more loud . He adds the second and third lines . He says what kind of a friend is he who does not tell the difficult truth and what kind of master is he who does not have the patience or the willingness hear the truth ". He adds a pungent line saying a good adviser is the one who will not tell a lie to please

Real life may not be that simple.

If there is a line to be read and interpreted we continue to read in our own way even if it is the wrong way. The forester is emphatically saying that it is his duty to explain fully what he knows . His duty is not to become a protagonist but be able to tell fully so that decision is taken on all facts. But now we are no longer advisers but we are more like protagonists.

We comes across choices where a line of action is proposed which may not be correct but if fits our own view then so be it ! . We will present it that way because it suits our view too. And if the bosses like that even better even if it is not correct !

In the original Mahabharata Story there is no such episode of a spy telling about the events in Duryodhana's kingdom. It is a creation of Bharavi . Which also means that by the time of Bharavi, the politics have developed into an art form. Apparently there were bosses who would shoot messengers hence the poet made a point to make the forester - the employee - say the home truths to his Boss .

That Bharavi wrote in those days means that this kind of management problems emanated from that time. In those time the management Schools were only the Intellectuals or those Poets writing loudly to bring it to the notice of all !!!

Om Tat Sat