Under the Cherry Tree!

Delhi is not just a city of manicured Mughal gardens and Luteyn's grand bungalows. It also a city of dusty villages, overcrowded urban slums, and beehives of mushrooming shanties! I grew up staring at that unwashed & ageing face of the city, where children had no open space to play, sewage made a meandering river in uncared streets and sunlight was too scared to enter deep into the hearts of tiny huddled houses.

At such places, things of beauty are rare, found with deliberate efforts and much fawned upon! One such thing of beauty was perfectly shaped, red blood spheres of sweet cherries, that would make a brief appearance at our local fruitseller's display during the months of early summer. Grown in the foothills of Himalayas, the fruit will make its way to the northern planes after a long road journey, only to be sold at an exorbitant price to the few select buyers.

Nonetheless, that would not stop my college going aunt to buy a few at expense of her all lunch money, and use them as a garnish for her special vanilla custard pudding, that she would painstakingly prepare to celebrate the fruit! The marvellous sight of those perfectly shaped cherries and the memory of sweet-tangy taste is eternally etched on my mind. So it was no surprise that when last year I found myself living in a house with a beautiful cherry tree in the backyard, my first thought was to give credit to my destiny. Or what else could explain this great circle of life?!

But then the scientist and rationalist in me prevailed. The connecting dots of my childhood memory of fascinating cherry fruits from foothills of Himalaya and a white-blossomed gorgeous cherry tree in the backyard of my German home could only be explained because of the great river of randomness that connects everything around us. We choose to call it destiny because it gives such events a 'purpose' and makes us sleep peacefully in the shadow of a supposed great 'Design of life'.

But here also unfolds a learning for all the corporate leaders, managers or anyone who uses strategy and planning to deal with forces of unseen future. While looking into the crystal ball of past, one often makes a mistake to force-connect the dots that were brought together only due to the great force of randomness. And this is a great thing, cause such force of randomness creates unforeseen opportunities. Hence every plan, every strategy, every forecast for future, in a corporate world or otherwise, should acknowledge that great randomness of life would write its own story, to complement ours. And that should be accepted with great humility because we can plan all that we want with our full might, but then life takes over and bring its own force of disruption to foster new beginnings. A leader must humbly accept that and should be ready to ride the waves of this great river of randomness. Think about it as I dream of some sweet cherry from our tree!