Poetry is History

Recently union minister Mr. Kapil Sibal was in news for an unusual reason. He had published a book of poetry! That got me thinking about the demise of poetry and poets in recent times. Poetry is almost ‘History’ now. Except for some ‘Hasya Kavita’ or ‘Humorous Poetry’ in Hindi, there is very little happening in this field of literature. I remember, when I was in school, poetry was as much a part of the English subject as prose and same thing applied to other language subjects as well. Is it the same in school curriculum now? I remember when I was in college; there was a news item in the paper about one English poet living in penury in Orissa. We had one of his poems in our curriculum and I felt sorry for him. But, I had a feeling that all poets liked to live that way and they got their satisfaction from writing. But, would such a poet want any of his students to take up that line?

I remember an incident when I was in 10+2 college. I had Oriya literature as one of the compulsory courses and there was a book of poetry in the syllabus. The various poems were well-written but were often pretty complicated and indirect in what they meant. I used to visit my uncle who is a Mathematics teacher to get some free lessons in calculus and there used to be one Oriya professor who used to visit their home regularly. I asked him once to explain me some of the poems and lo and behold, he just jumped on the chance. May be not many students were keen to study the subject in his college or he was really passionate about it. He used to spend hours discussing few stanzas and would often ask me to close my eyes and imagine the scenes. Since there was lot of disturbance from other people in the house, he would ask me to go someplace where I could contemplate in silence. Many times, I ended up in the bathroom, trying to imagine what the poet was seeing or thinking!

Unlike prose, which is fairly straightforward to read (there are some notable exceptions such as ‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce, considered the book of the century, which I found extremely difficult to read!), reading poetry requires a different attitude. If reading prose is like downing a shot or drinking a mug of beer, poetry is more like savoring old wine.

Poetry needs time to read, reflect and enjoy. Poetry needs imagination and indulgence to appreciate and one can not apply just everyday logic and rationality to poetry. Like an endangered species, poets and poetry need protection now. But, it may have been too late already. The computer is very adapted to write prose. Try writing a few lines of poetry and the spelling and grammar check will underline each line as mistake. That’s of course, in a lighter vein.

Be it English, Hindi or any other language, poetry was always the more celebrated art in literature. Poets were considered as romantic, charming, bold and intelligent. The poetry of Robert Frost ‘ The woods are lovely dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, miles to go before I sleep, miles to go before I sleep’, or that of Wordsworth ‘The solitary reaper - Behold her, single in the field,Yon solitary Highland Lass!Reaping and singing by herself;Stop here, or gently pass!’, so timeless in their beauty and so rich in meaning.

The art of poetry is too unfashionable in today’s fast world. Kids are spending most of their time in front of TV and reading habit is going down. This is not only in India but in most of the countries. No one seems to notice the slow demise of this form of literature. But, is it not really sad? Don’t we want our children to experience the feeling of reading poetry? Don’t we want them to feel the emotions wrapped up in those lyrical words? I am going to search for a book on poetry next time I am in a bookshop! I will update if I am successful.

JET NARESH-WAYS

The late night press conference by a visibly emotional Naresh Goyal, the Chairman of Jet Airways, is very significant for the Indian corporate sector, especially the aviation sector. Not only that Mr. Goyal reinstated all the staff that were recently retrenched, he put staff welfare over business economics and management strategy. He called the staff as members of family, comparing them to his 19 year daughter on many instances and asked them decide how to take care of the economic situation. Whether Mr. Goyal did it under pressure from the tremendous media attention the layoff received or from political figures, he sounded very genuine about his concerns for the company’s staff. He questioned management’s decision to cut costs by laying off staff in the lower salary brackets.

This action will of course be welcome by one and all, except those in the company worrying about the plunging bottom-line. However, time and again, it has been proved that if employees put their heart and mind to work, the company usually comes out stronger and more profitable than the competition. Southwest airline is one such example which has both employee satisfaction and profitability have always gone hand in hand. While lay-offs during times of economic downturn have been common in the IT industry at a large, Infosys, has never laid off staff for such reason. Mr. Narayana Murthy and other senior management members have always found alternates to retrenchment such as re-training and redeployment. Answering questions regarding the huge cash reserves Infosys keeps, NRN says Infosys should be able to sustain itself even if there is no business for the company in an year.

This event will definitely create tremendous pressure on other companies who might be contemplating staff layoffs as a last ditch effort to counter the current economic situation. And what about those who receive employment offers and then they are sent regret letters? Should they be entitled to some benefits as well? In a free economy employment is always at will and this applies to both sides. In India and other countries where there is no social security and opportunities for employment are not equal, layoffs would cause the kind protests we have seen in the case of Jet. In the worst case, it has led to violence and the recent killing of a CEO of an Italian Multinational in Noida is a case in point. Hence, staff layoffs have to be handled very carefully and with compassion and proper planning. I don’t know how Jet management planned the layoffs but I would avoid the following:

a. Not telling people that their jobs have been taken away till they are waiting for their transport to arrive for them to report for work
b. Not informing the employees regarding economic conditions and state of finances for the company and what actions the company has already taken and are planned for future.
c. Not informing the employees either in person or in writing till they found out from friends and team leaders about the retrenchment
d. Letting go of such a large number at one go and not reducing staff from middle and senior management
e. Not paying some kind of financial compensation, ideally three months pay, at least one month pay.
f. Lay-offs just before a major national festival like Deewali, when people shop and gift the most


Anyways, Kudos to Mr. Goyal for being a businessman with a big heart! Time will tell how this event influences the airline’s future.