Change – A reality for all

Here is a cliché that visits all of our lives with increasing frequency – ‘the only constant is change’. For some of us the visits are more frequent than others. We know that accepting, adapting and ultimately mastering this new ‘constant’ is the key to continual success. Whether it is the movement from single to married, married but no kids to life with children, individual contributor role at work to being responsible for a team to being responsible for the bottom line, working in the city of birth to working in a different country, adapting to a different boss, understanding the new process at work……it is there everywhere and all the time.

In these days, unlike the past, we also have mentors at work, change management programmes, transition coaches and realms of literature to sensitise us to the requirements. Yet, when it finally comes down to it, how many of us are really able to make the cut, on a sustained basis? Some of the most common refrains for failed marriages are, ‘we could not make the adjustments required’, ‘he just refused to change’ or ‘things were not the same any longer’. Some of the most common refrains for failed professional relationships are also ‘he did not adapt to the new requirements of the role’, ‘she was too old school’, ‘I did not like the way things had changed at the workplace’ and so on.

What it takes to succeed

Change is a process. There are many different models to explain the personal journey human beings travel when facing up to a change. Here is a model that I find useful in explaining the process:

Through my interactions as coach and facilitator I have some observations on why some people are more successful than others at dealing with change at certain times. It is critical to add this caveat as there is a difference between adapting to change well all the time and sometimes. More on that later in this post. Here are some of my observations:

1.Shortening the Change Acceptance Cycle

Those who move quickly to a phase of ACCEPTING that the change is already upon them and therefore now look to deal with it rather than DENY it. You will find them enthusiastically embracing the new process at work, welcoming the new boss, eager to try the new thing. They spend time trying to figure out the new and what it means to them rather than dwelling on the old. We often refer to them as ‘change agents’ because they carry with them the enthusiasm to positively affect the thinking of others towards change.

Commonalities that I have observed in this group are curiosity, eagerness to learn, early adoption of gadgets and a risqué relationship with compliance.

2. Recognizing that YOU have to Change

Those who recognize that THEY have to change and it is not the environment or others who have to change manage the change process better. This sounds simple but is generally very difficult. It is another form of DENIAL. Think about it from the context of your own lives – how many spouses wait for the other to make the adjustments, how often you want the city folks to change the way they behave (when you move into a new city), how you want your new team members to understand you and make the right moves by you and so on.

This trait is also referred to as ‘initiative’ in a change process.

3. Tuned to change

I had spoken earlier about how some people are good at dealing with change at certain times and some others more consistently.

For both sets it begins with first understanding what change means – that implies that the person has moved out of the DENIAL phase. Sometimes, change moves us into situations that are our comfort zones and then we embrace it happily. Most often though, change takes us outside our comfort zones.

It is my hypothesis that those who have had to deal with a lot of moving around cities, schools, houses in their formative years, find the whole notion of change to be a comfort zone. Children of army personnel, bureaucrats, railway officials and others in transferable jobs have had to deal with new homes, making new friends, getting used to new teachers, different weather and a whole host of other things. They are not fazed by having to adapt to something new. In fact, many of them get bored if left to do the same thing, for a few years.

4.  Not wearing your ‘area of development ‘ as a badge

So you have been told over many appraisals and feedback sessions that you are not assertive enough. You have great domain expertise and are very pleasant so people like you and you have been promoted fairly regularly. You are now responsible for a team of 8 Direct reports and 30 Indirects. Your President tells you ’Smita, you have to be more assertive to be effective.’ You smile and say, ’I have always been told that. What to do!’

Sounds familiar? It could have read ‘I know I lose my cool but what to do!’ or ‘I know I should not micro manage but what to do!’

In areas of leadership development and transitioning, I have found this to be the biggest block to change. It is an internal belief that “this does not need to actually change” or “I simply cannot change it, this is too much me”. Worse still, “this is what makes me and I am quite proud of it.”

There is good news for everybody who believes they simply cannot change some behaviour – unless it is coded in your DNA or a result of a chemical imbalance, you can change. For starters, stop wearing it as a badge and think of it as an ugly sore on your face. You will be surprised how quickly you can remove it.

BHAG (noun): [pronounced beeHAG] Acronym for Big Hairy Audacious Goal

One of the services that BullzI provides is facilitating the process for organisations to define their long-term vision, their mission and very often, their BHAG

Like every goal, a BHAG is action oriented and clear. Where a BHAG must necessarily differentiate is by being compelling and gripping. People need to ‘get it right away’ – it must ‘hit you in the gut’ and –’give you goose bumps’ by the sheer audacity and ‘wow’ scale it envisions.

A BHAG is a classic bootstrap to initiate an organizations journey to transformation.  We have seen the adoption of their BHAG put a company on a path of transformation from an ‘also ran’ to a top 5; another well on its way to trebling itself and a third betting its future on a line of business which was believed to be ‘niche’.  The transformative power of a BHAG adopted across levels, backed by sound strategy and rigorous execution is an inspiring stage in an organisation’s development.

Working with different organisations through this transformative process of Visioning, BHAG and strategy formulation have provided us insights and understanding that we are often constrained to share. These are mostly classified data.

There is one, however, that inspired me personally and I have the permission of the client to share with you.

Touching the world

Ashoka is a global organisation that has created and organized a network for social entrepreneurs (Ashoka ‘fellows’) who are the ‘engines’ of social change. Operating across 5 continents, this 29 year old organization today boasts of a staggering network of over 3000 fellows.  6 years ago, Ashoka set up a focused group dedicated to the vision of achieving a world where everyone is a ‘Full Economic Citizen’ or FEC.

FEC is not a niche ‘Ashoka concept’. The United Nations provides a very specific definition for the FEC and lays out a charter delineating specific human rights that most nations have signed up to. The charter confers on nations the responsibility to provide access, to its under-served citizens, to basic services like food, housing, clean water, healthcare and power (energy).

The truth, however, is that more than two-third of theworld’s population today do not have access to one or more of the basic services that are required for FEC.
The Ashoka FEC team, spread across 4 continents espoused the concept of HVC™ – envisioning a world where businesses – either mainstream or a social enterprise or a complimentary Corporate – CSO combine – transform their business models to profitably serve the ‘Bottom-of-the-Pyramid’. The concept is radical, innovative and transformative. It is also counter intuitive and hence difficult to sell. Imagine getting a bank to advance a loan to a person who does not have a permanent address or a salary slip OR getting an NGO to distribute ceramic tiles for a profit!

The Ashoka FEC team decided on engaging themselves and their network to launch pilots that would prove to the world that HVC™ was a model that worked – and worked well. Housing improvement projects in Colombia and Brazil were launched, India & Egypt have affordable housing pilots and Mexico started work with small farmer irrigation projects.

Six years and multiple pilots later, the team was experiencing a restlessness that seemed to them to signify that a tipping point is imminent. The time to make that big leap had arrived.

A process that had begun through e-meetings (to restate the Vision and Mission) culminated in the global team getting together at Udaipur this summer.  Their objective: arrive at the BHAG and the way forward.

Define their BHAG they did. And how. The team set for themselves a goal of  ‘Ensuring that ONE BILLION of the world’s neediest people would have at least ONE BASIC SERVICE in the next TEN YEARS.’

The true Davids

The global Ashoka team is currently all of 19 people. 19 fiercely committed and smart social entrepreneurs, who are experienced in dealing with large transformative projects in different parts of the globe. If ever there was a team on whom you had to bet to achieve a goal like this, it would be this one.

Like in any thinking group, agreement was not instantaneous. There were a barrage of questions and critique. Every sentence was dissected, every word analyzed.   It did not matter who proposed what – the Head of the Organisation was questioned fearlessly by the youngest and newest members of the organisation. Driving consensus was hard – but buy-in was all pervasive at the end.

Articulating the BHAG, triggered the tipping point: The conference moved into a decidedly higher gear and tremendous ground was covered in identifying key issues, initiatives, responsibilities, personal change plans. I was impressed by their ability to move fast – stuff that takes a good week to do, this group did in two days! The ‘fly wheels’ of the organisational machine were visibly in motion, inexorably driving the big wheels.

I knew I witnessed something special there. An inspiring goal to transform the lives of a billion underserved people, adopted by a highly motivated bunch of changemakers who continuously punch above their weight and make the seemingly impossible seem probable.

On the right path of achieving the BHAG

I have a feeling that this group will succeed in achieving their BHAG. It is not just an intuition but a firm hypothesis based on some of the observations about this team:

• The right people are on the ‘bus’. Driven, entrepreneurial, individually committed to making a difference
• Total buy-in from the group achieved after rigorous critique and discussion.
• Open communication, willingness to question self and strategy. Will have the ability to adapt and change.
• Ability to move fast & execute well
• A clear roadmap.

Transforming a billion lives in 10 years is truly a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. For the sake of mankind, I wish them an unqualified success.

About the best recognition that an HR Head can get is when the organisation gets selected as the ‘Best Place to Work’ in its industry in the Great Places to Work survey. When that happens 2 years running, as in the case of Network 18 in Media, it is time for all of us to applaud the chief architect of this success story.

Meet Rajneesh Singh, Group Head, HR, Network 18. He carries his over 20 years of work experience and his obvious success with the same genial smile, simple ways and air of humility that marks his approach to both strategy and execution in the job. Rajneesh spent years in structured industries and environments through the National Productivity Council to Gillette India, before moving into the crazy, chaotic, frenetic world of India’s fastest growing Media House.

Network 18 is a collection of many different kinds of businesses managed by over 3500 people. From the maturing world of Television (CNBC TV-18, CNN-IBN, IBN 7, IBN Lokmat, CNBC Awaaz) through the emerging world of the internet (Web 18), the mature world of print and publishing (Forbes India) and the completely ‘different’ animal of Home Shopping (Homeshop 18) and Sports Management (Sport 18), the task of managing talent, creating an ‘Employer brand’ and overcoming incumbency to be voted as the ‘Best Place to Work’ again, takes some doing.

In this interview, Rajneesh shares many of his insights, some of the strategies and some personal opinions on what has worked for him. This is an outstanding interview for all business leaders in the ‘creative’ businesses and for all others who want to understand how a successful HR vision is created and executed across a fairly complex group.

Please feel free to shoot your questions, state your opinions in the comments section.

1. From an FMCG MNC to Indian Media – what were the challenges in terms of culture, processes, acceptance of HR etc. that you had to face? Was it different from what you had expected? Did you ever regret it?

The last question first! I have no regrets at all of joining the Media industry and the last 4 years have been the most challenging and the most satisfying times of my career. I did expect it to be different since it was a young industry (more so Network18). Coming from a very structured work environment (Gillette India), it was important for me to unlearn and relearn. The first thing that one did was to understand the expectations from the leadership as far as HR deliverables were concerned. That initial dialogue set the ball rolling. It is critical for this buy-in to happen upfront.

The next step was to map the current practices, processes, systems, etc. Based on this understanding, a HR model was put in place and the working HR framework emerged out of this model. This laid the way forward for different HR processes either to be reworked or launch afresh. The empowering culture of Network18 facilitated in the execution of any intervention. The freedom to create or design new systems or processes helped matters. We ensured that each process was co owned by the leadership. The other learning was to keep things simple and hence any HR related process was articulated in not more than one page. And it was kept as jargon less as possible!

2. What are the key HR challenges of this enormous growth at Network 18? How are you dealing with them?

While we do believe that we have been able to create a strong employer brand and it is easy to attract talent, the challenge would always be to develop and engage them so that we retain them. While we are doing fairly well on the engagement factor, it is the development aspect wherein we are spending more time of late. We have an Organization Development team in place which focuses on 3 key areas viz Culture Building, Leadership Development & Learning. While we treat engagement practices as the every day practice, the development practices are for the long haul. Most of the development related interventions are being driven internally thereby keeping the whole approach as low cost & high impact as possible.

The other challenge is how to retain the culture fabric of the Network. New businesses got started, some businesses got acquired and some came in as joint ventures. Each one of them has its own set of challenges. We are using various communication forums to keep the businesses connected. Two years back, a Value Book was printed as part of our rebranding exercise, which succinctly states our mission plus values. This articulation helped immensely in the integration process.

3. Is Network 18 one organisation in terms of culture, over riding vision? How do you deal with differences in new media, home shopping and old media etc.?

We strongly believe that while each business needs to be connected at a certain level, at another level they need to run independently too. But as mentioned above, it’s the mission and the values which bind them.

There are synergy teams formed between core functions of each business and they come together on a need basis to provide a Network “push’ so to say to any product launch. This structured approach has helped to tap the power of the Network tremendously.

4. What are the key things you have done to become the Best Workplace in Media for 2 years running?

As HR we have taken various initiatives to make Network18 the Best Workplace in Media. In the entire journey so far we have ensured there is a fine balance between “touch” and “technology”. Every HR intervention leverages these 2 important elements at Network18.

The “touch” element has driven our Campus and New Hire Onboarding processes which we believe is a very critical process to begin with. It has also driven our communication forums in different avatars eg. Know your colleague (a lunch session with the CEO), In conversation (Editorial leads interaction with Sales & Marketing team members), Expert talks (external renowned speakers talk sessions), Town Halls (Top management interaction with team members), etc. As par t of our Leadership Development initiative, we have adopted the “Focused group approach” where coaching takes place with potential leaders in small groups. We run an employee driven contributory fund which takes care of the education of our low income staff’s children. Quarterly recognition programs take place in the newsroom or in a studio, right in the thick of action. Various intra meets plus outbound sessions/training has further given an edge to the “touch” element.

As part of the “technology” element, we have worked around the new media in a big way. We exploit the email mode of communication by getting our leadership to send out regular communication to their team thereby keeping all of them informed. We have a very engaging HR portal, My18, which hosts plenty of HR related information and has 2 interesting corners. The first being the Leadership corner, where a leader is expected to write a note on an area of interest. The other corner carries the profiles of team members thereby giving a face to a name in a large organization like ours. This portal also captures all individual related information in a very easy-to-use format. Various contests and quizzes are run on this portal. The other medium that we have started using extensively is the mobile phone which we believe does wonders in the dissemination of information at real time.

Above all these 2 elements are the other 2 factors which give us competitive edge and have facilitated in making us a great place to work. These are stable & credible leadership and competitive & innovative compensation practices.

5. There is this argument that many leaders of the ‘creative’ businesses extend that HR and processes are not as effective with ‘creative’ businesses as with manufacturing or services? What is your view?

On the contrary I have found very similar acceptance of the HR processes as in manufacturing or services, as if it was the right thing to happen at the right time. There is enough appreciation of the work that HR does whether its in the space of Onboarding or Campus hiring or Learning or Recognition or Communication or Leadership development or Engagement or Reward. It is a people driven industry and that too where creativity flows unabated. It is critical for the HR team members to be equally “creative” if they have to keep pace in this industry. They have to design processes keeping in mind the stiff timelines that an editorial team works on for example. As the industry matures, I see more of HR processes coming into play. These processes need to facilitate the overall growth of the organization and the individuals rather than stifling them. The word of caution here is to not get too structured at the outset. The HR interventions will take time to settle and to that extent any HR team member in the media space needs to be patient and give good time for concepts to give results.

6. How important is creativity in your function? What have you done at Network 18?

As mentioned above, we in HR thrive on creativity. We have been doing things differently, working around what exists around us. The whole HR structure works on 2 “legs”. The Embedded HR team (E HR) and the Organization Development team (OD). While the E HRs are, as their name suggests, embedded in each business in the group, the OD team is a shared pool for all businesses. While the E HRs look after the “here & now” issues of HR, it’s the OD team which is doing the “long haul” work.

While being creative, the other premise that we have worked around is how to keep things simple and keep them low cost, high impact. This approach has helped HR take roots in the Network.

7. What according to you are the key qualities of a good leader? What do you look for in leadership?

From my very early days of corporate life, I have looked for a leader who has balanced the 2 key aspects they deal on a day to day basis. Those are the task and the people. And an effective leader has a slight tilt towards task as compared to people. It’s a fine act to follow and to take eyes off any of these two affects the work at hand. The other learning which I got from the media industry is that true leaders are passionate people. They must love what they do. The leadership at Network18 is classic example of this and I have immense respect for each one of them. They continue to do magic each day tirelessly because its fun for them!

The readers of this blog seem to have voted conclusively in favour of ‘Motivation being an internal and external drive’ (for those who missed it – Is Motivation Purely Internal?). From the comments it also seems clear that leadership plays the key role by enabling the environment, showing the direction and lighting the fires within along with a person’s internal drivers.

My opinion is based on the following:

1. Successful programmes in coaching very senior managers to make behaviour changes.

2. Programmes of facilitating change management interventions with teams of leaders.

3. Over 2000 conversations with potential job seekers of various ages (22-60), through various stages of engagement with many leading to final job choice decisions.

4. Autobiographies and stories of many great leaders (Gandhi, Churchill, Alexander, Ashok, Lenin, Che Guevara and so on).

5. My own life experience as I moved from wanting to be a teacher to an accidental advertising person to my current avatar as a consultant and coach.

The Compass and The Map

Alexander of Macedonia created in 10 years, an empire larger than anything the Romans were able to do over 500 years of empire building. He was fired by his desire for greatness. But what about his army? The one he commanded so expertly to win all those battles? What did they fight for and why did they finally stop? History tells us, and this is a seriously paraphrased explanation, that for most of them, right down to the foot soldier, it was their ‘get rich quick’ scheme. They believed that this was their chance to amass wealth beyond anything that they could otherwise hope to do in their lives. They followed Alexander because they believed he had the military chutzpah to make the risk of death acceptable. They finally turned back because of the never ending nature of Alexander’s quest which prevented them from enjoying the spoils of their victory. The story of Chengiz Khan and his army is only slightly different – Chengiz came from an impoverished and agriculturally barren land which had always only seen a cycle of war and looting for the meagre resources. No wonder his soldiers looted and plundered after every victory.

What we learn from the stories of the most successful conquerors is that their armies were essentially mercenary – soldiers motivated enough to put their lives on the line for a fighting chance to change their financial status for life.They needed a better life and Alexander and Chengiz recognised that and promised them great wealth.

The story of Gandhi and the freedom movement or Lenin and the October Revolution  runs to pretty much the same script – promise of a better life for the individual which led to mass participation and then change. Some may argue that there were those who were motivated by purely altruistic reasons and therefore self interest is not the only motivator. True and we will come back to it a little later but for the moment let us stay with the majority.

It seems to me that the large mass in all of these cases had an internal compass which pointed them in a particular direction but they had no map for reference. It was the leaders who arrived with the map and the coordinates. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Jiggly Pointer

Does the pointer always, unerringly show true north?

I will once again deal with the average – those around the centre of the bell curve. For most people the process of discovering their true north is a lifelong journey. The younger you are, the less certain. It is often at these times, when the compass pointer is at its jiggliest, that people are most open to being ‘influenced’ or ‘led’ into a particular direction. That is why younger people have always been the bedrock of all ‘movements’ and ‘ideologies’. Charismatic and persuasive leadership is most appealing and that is when they are looking to be ‘led’. The fire for motivation is lit from the outside. In the corporate world, the first boss (if he was in any way charismatic) is often one such person. Often we follow this boss into a different job simply because he asked.

The True North

Soon, however, the jiggly pointer starts moving as an individual comes to grip with his own self and situation. Pure altruism often gives way to the need for fame/money/power/freedom/peace/exploration and so on. The person than looks for coordinates that match what his compass shows as true north then.  Should the ex boss ask one to move, he will evaluate whether the coordinates match his compass direction.

The jiggly pointer however does not just settle down and go to sleep, stuck permanently in one direction. Over time, as a persons situation in life changes and his own understanding of self, the pointer keeps moving and homing in closer and closer to True North. The closer you are to your True North, the stronger your internal drive and unsurprisingly, the higher your need for knowledge and independence. Also, the closer you are to your true North, the higher your Self Esteem. You are a lot more at peace with your own desires and drives. This is the state I refer to as Enlightened Self Interest.

This is also the condition under which you are able to deliver the most creative, innovative solutions. There are enough experiments done on this subject. Read Dan Pink for more on this subject.

In the world of knowledge workers, we will increasingly be dealing with people with a firmer grip of their internal compasses. To deal with the truly self motivated, paradigms of command and control and mass incentivisation will not work. Empowerment, knowledge, mutual respect and recognition of self are the pillars of the new paradigm.

About the writer

Dr.Susmita Dasgupta is a  Master in Economics from Jadavpur University and a PhD in Sociology from JNU. Her thesis on Amitabh Bachan resulted in the book ‘Amitabh – The Making of a Superstar’ published by Penguin in 2006. It has sold  all copies printed to date and is widely referenced by many Universities internationally. In Susmita’s words, ‘I write, research and muse on India’s popular culture’. Her forthcoming book is on Deewar. She often refers to her study subject as understanding ‘fandom’ in our country.

Susmita also holds a day job as a policy economist employed in the Economic Research Unit, Joint Plant Committee constituted by the Ministry of Steel, Government of India.

 Ode to a victorious Female – Rakhi Sawant

My friend from school, Madhu Kedia, now Gupta asks me how the Rakhi Sawant show is among my favourites. Madhu knows me as I was some forty years ago, quintessentially from a Bengali bhadralok background who turned her nose up at anything that either was not classical English or highbrow Bengali. The Hindi popular world was so vernacular, so daal roti that only the “non-Bengalis” were worthy of consuming. But in the past forty years I have changed. I have changed home from being in Kolkata to living in Delhi where no one knows me through my background but I have also changed my home mentally. I no longer inhabit the bhadralok culture as I have discovered the larger India where “Hindustanis” live and also speak in “non-Bengali” languages. It is in this new mooring that I have acquired new sensibilities through which I have developed a kind of reverence which is now almost awe for Rakhi.

When Madhu knew me, my world was certain. I was certain to clear school, go to college, earn my degrees and then step out into the world where the most deserving job waited for me. I was in for a rude shock when I saw that the world was not a passive waiter eager to hand me out whatever I needed. Instead, it was a place of hard bargaining, of image management and of warlike strategies. It is here that I see Rakhi Sawant succeed in all those areas in which I failed. She has none of my background or education, nor does she have the support of a doting family and she must have had almost no friend or relative in high places. Yet she made it big despite everything and also, as I may like to believe because she has the huge ability to turn her obstacles into her good fortune.

Rakhi is all that I fear being and becoming. She is lower middle class, suppressed by patriarchy, resented by mother for both being a daughter and also for doing well. She is vernacular, stocky and short. When she made her mark in the music video I thought that she was flaunting her sexuality to attract male attention, something that I quite abhor. I would never dream of treading her path of becoming a television joke even if that made me famous. But there are things that Rakhi has been able to do that has broken her glass ceiling and lifted her out of her social and economic class and made her acquire the crucial element of life – purchasing power to lead a life of dignity. This is why I hold Rakhi in awe.

Women are vulnerable in the public space. You are harassed sexually and most of the times for being not interested in sex. In the eyes of men the worth of women are only two – either you are a maidservant or you are a prostitute. In case of Shiny Ahuja, his maid was both. Only two things can protect a woman from the male harassment, her family background and her money. I, in my early life before I left home, had both. Rakhi had neither.  I jumped at the first public sector job that I got and never left it since then. The guiding factor behind my choice was fear, fear of a world unkind to women. Inside the public sector things were no better than they were elsewhere but at least there were rules and institutional structures by which a woman could get justice. I, in effect hid behind rules, power, education and of course my family background to ward off the wolves that are found in the human jungle. But Rakhi went ahead, caught all bulls by their horns, manipulated them and then loudly sneered at them. They were not contemptuous of Rakhi for that, they were reverent.

The lack of education did not come in the way of Rakhi’s ability to articulate her thoughts. She minced no words, did not wish to be politically correct and did not hide her emotions under the veneer of some sublime rights. If she felt bad, she clearly told us so. In the garb of being entertaining through her rather direct way of ticking off people, Rakhi used the platform of the Swayamvar to launch a tirade against the male as no feminist has been able to do before. She remained very much within the “architecture” of marriage and within it exposed the men as it was not possible for anyone to do before. Along with the male ego, she managed to expose a whole lot of relatives as well, their attitudes, their bearings that constitute the core of the ugly, stupid, middle classes.

Her fantastic ability to articulate emanates from her capabilities as a very fine dancer. She uses her eyes, her body, her posture, the throw of her head, and the movement of her fingers to express herself and has a surprising command over language with which she can represent her gestures in words. She reaches people directly because of the language she has derived straight from within her body, from her body movements and dance mudras. This language has a superior ability to reach people because it physically communicates with them. Rakhi is all physical, but like a true dancer has raised her physicality to a vehicle of communication. This is also the politics of Rakhi Sawant.

She has completely bypassed the need to place the issues of her life in terms of the available language in the public space. She has devised her own expressions, her own issues, her own justifications and metaphysics. This entire saga she has scripted on her own. She has created an image for herself unaided by script writers and film directors and using reality shows and television space she has been able to emerge in a zone in which women are heavily scripted and crafted and in which she becomes completely unpredictable. In the music shows, we see exceptionally talented women being voted out of public space. India, in its fateful journey to economic “superpowerdom” has decided that it will not tolerate successful women who can stand on their own. It is this India that Rakhi has eat its own words when all telly sets were tuned in to NDTV Imagine to watch with bated breath which man Rakhi will choose. For me, the swayambvar was the ultimate expression of Rakhi’s being, she who chooses one among so many eagerly contesting males as the female dictating her terms and having half the world dance to her tune and the rest as her loyal viewers.

After a long time we see in Rakhi a woman for herself and not merely a woman in herself. She is complete, whether she has a boyfriend or not, whether she eventually marries the winner of her show or not, Rakhi with or without the shadow of mother, father, brother or husband, is Rakhi Sawant. She needs no casting couch because she needs no director, she needs no story to prop her image up, and she is a story by herself without the prop of fiction films or of the telly soaps.

Perhaps the only parallel that Rakhi has in the film industry is Preity Zinta, independent, articulate, straight speaking and fearless. But Preity is cast as a girl who’s dumped by her boyfriend, a rejected marriage material, a far too opinionated girl. Preity has not been able to cash on her image as an independent woman precisely because her image draws from the incorrigible patriarchy of Bollywood cinema. But Rakhi has crafted herself so well that not only has she brought back the centrality of the feminine into the television but also showed to the directors and producers that it is she who they must chase and not the other way round. Hats off Rakhi !!