Showing posts with label appreciation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label appreciation. Show all posts

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Art of appreciation

The two year old grand son of my brother, did not even pronounce the words properly but hurriedly completed the rhyme, was himself clapping and egging on others around to "clap, clap" until everyone complied. The beaming child on hearing the applause all around him was a sight to behold. Without any further prompt, he sincerely proceeded to recite the next rhyme, anticipating a bigger round of applause !

My aging uncle also had this habit of recounting everything from his early days, like when Mylapore area was almost on the fringes of a forest and Adyar was unknown, there were boats plying in Cooum river with firewood etc., Seasoned people around him used to silently listen but if anyone asks for more details , his eyes will open wide and then there will be no stopping him.

Such is the power of appreciation, a tool of recognition from a child to the senior. Everyone wants to be appreciated, applauded, recognized and talked about. Only the performing artistes have no hesitation in accepting that they value the clap of the audience more than the material returns. Of course, there are sports persons who find an empty stand very dampening to play which perhaps is the reason for the greater popularity of cricket in India.

While I was on a business trip to U.S , after a presentation of our capabilities was made by my boss, I was very impressed and immediately shot an email to him, who was sitting at the other end of the horse-shoe table in the conference hall. This was done with all sincerity and meant as a genuine expression of my appreciation, but I was more surprised to get an acknowledgement within minutes, which was written 'thanks' all over.

In one of the organizations I served, the management was astute enough to conduct an "Appreciation day". On this day, people could obtain any number of 'Appreciation card' from the front office and were encouraged to send them to anyone in the organization whom they appreciate.   It need not be from one's own team, it could be from Admin, HR, Help desk, support teams, your boss, your junior most team member or even the President of the organization. It was a treat to watch the good will flowing through the day and whoever came up with the idea need to be well appreciated.

Any unfortunate event, any bad exchange, any sour event could be turned with a single stroke of appreciation with a simple pat on the back. Hope this is also taught in management and training schools for the Managers of this era. In my opinion,  this is the only activity in this world which warms the hearts of both the giver and receiver !

Monday, June 17, 2013

Why wait until they are 'Late'?

The gradual fading away of some of the popular faces and voices of yesteryear is now impacting those who are on the verge of acquiring senior citizen status. The passing away of singers PBS & TMS have certainly left a huge dent in the tamil music world which is next to impossible to fill up, to use the popular cliche . Even now, when I hear any song on radio which is invariably rendered by TMS, I sincerely miss him. I also feel that this great singer could have been more recognized, more feted.

Immediately after the passing away of any such prominent personality it has become a norm to dig deep into the archives and bring all great feats and hitherto unknown traits of the person. Why can't we do this when they are alive? An artiste , personally values the appreciations, claps and feedback far more than the remuneration he receives. In fact, in one of the proposals for the Kalyan Nagar Association in Mandaveli, Chennai, my brother suggested few months back that we must honor TMS, the aging artiste in our neighborhood for having made the audience dance to his voice for decades. I appreciate the foresight of my bro but before this could be implemented the doyen has passed away.

This morning a post by the popular personality Manushya Puthran in Face book  "ரு மனிதனையாவது சாவதற்குள் கொண்டாடுவோம்..அடையாளம் காண்போம்" triggered my thoughts on the subject.

Not only in film or music world, but in other areas too such as medicine, education, child welfare, environment, sports ...... there are many such greats and let us identify and appreciate them for the services they have rendered. 

No doubt, we will do it but what I plead is let us do it when they are still with us , so that they could also rejoice at the recognition.