Guest AuthorPrarthana Sethumadhavan
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THE LINGUISTIC SPILLOVERS

By | Sakalya Holistic HR Solutions | Services across HR Consulting

Seema and Rujuta gave each other a look. Both of them had received `THE’ phone call from Gautam and Radhika’s teachers. Gautam and Radhika, both being their respective kids, not more than 6 years of age. Bracing themselves, they left office and informed their teams that they would take a short break and be back to work. In the school, Mrs. Pandya, relic from the Jurassic Park days wore a sombre expression. Her silver hair was tightly wound up in a bun; she wore a high neck, nun like blouse of an indiscriminate colour along with a saree wrapped around her so tightly that it did not allow light and air to pass –in all likelihood. Seema and Rujuta stood in immediate attention in front of the matron, awaiting her verdict on both their children.

“Seema and Rujuta, both Gautam and Radhika were caught copying in the surprise class test’’ and on being reprimanded and punished, they say it was ` team work to enhance synergies’!!! Seema gasped in shock. She had been talking to Rajat, her husband regarding her team performance just the previous day and had used the very same words! But how did these young kids pick up the same, and much less use it in today’s context? The corporate language had spilled into their homes in a silent invasion knowing or unknowingly they tended to use the same even in their daily references.

Seema thought back, when she had married into Rajat’s family, how she was looking forward to understand the `cultural diversity’ of her in laws family, with her being a Tambram and Rajat being a Delhi Punjabi Khatri boy. The difference in `culture’ took a lot of adjusting to, but save Rajat, she would have long ago quit the set up. She and Rajat had believed in `gender equality’, and apart from pursuing their respective careers also took equal share in the household chores. She often thought of the term ` engagement’ when she associated with Rajat’s side of the family and all the festivities and functions that she was required to be part of. She often had questioned herself of ` her engagement’ in these family dos. During the time of her pregnancy, she had to `sensitize’ Rajat about her condition, and he had to `balance roles’ around the house. His new role had broadened in scope and he ` was mentored ‘into the same by herself and her mother. Her mother had instructed Rajat on the ` Standard Operating Proceedures’ to be followed during pregnancy and post childbirth. The time post the birth of Gautam, and with her mother gone, was a time when both dealt `with ambiguity’, not knowing how to deal with the brawling infant. Rearing baby Gautam, dealt with a whole new set of competencies. Both she and Rajat needed `Planning, Organizing, and Decision Making at very high levels of proficiency, along with Interpersonal Communication! Rajat was constantly warned to up his EQ when dealing with either her or the baby. A cook and a nanny had formed their support ecosystem. Parenting Gautam, required a new set of strategies. Both she and Rajat had decided that they would spend ` Quality time with the baby, aim to a Work Life Balance, along with improving the Quality of their Lives. The playschool and school that they would choose would be one which ` gave a good value add’ to their child along with a decent ROI on the fees paid. They had inspected all the `hygiene factors’of the schools, the teacher competencies, the USP of the school which would give their child a better competitive advantage in life. Pains were taken to see that other kids who would be Gautam’s playmates would come from a similar social strata to avoid ` a cultureshock’ for the kid. After all they were major `stakeholders’ for the same. The Principal had assured them that they had a very stringent policy for the ` Talent Identification, Talent Management and Talent Development of the students, and this they would do with various tools at their disposal which included ` training the students, role plays, project works, team participation and contributions, e learning on the laptops issued, reinforcement of key and salient partscross culture exchanges with students from other parts of the globeregular performance appraisal and management with the help of parent teacher interactions among some of the features. The Principal also suggested that the school would be very pleased ` for parents to be in a contributory and participatory mode’ to build engagement and ensure better outcomes.

So far things were going as per plan and the projected trajectory. Now this!!! Maybe her laizzez faire policy with Gautam was not doing so well, and she needed to adopt a more autocratic approach? So far both she and Rajat had been extremely ` enabling ‘to Gautam, and had given him a great deal of autonomy. Gautam was literally like a pampered consumer, with the huge amount of choices available to him ! Choice in food ( Desi, Continental, Chinese, Mughlai, Italian,  food from Swiggy, Zomato, Domino), free usage of I Phone and I pad, gaming, theme birthday parties, vacations abroad and the list went on.

This was so different from the time they were brought up. Amma and Appa did not have these linguistic mires for parenting. The ` principles, the process  and the outcomes were well defined. The expectations were clearly defined. We never had any dual thoughts on the same. Today when parents are facilitating the ` the growth and exploring of the child’s potential’ the outcome is yet to be known. In the meanwhile, Gautam and Radhika had just put a twist to team work and synergies—sure sign of the team dynamics changing in these times as compared to earlier.

Rujuta was in the meanwhile apologizing to the human Tyrannosaurus. They had understood the `way forward’ on how to discipline the kids. The kids would not ` push the envelope’ where it was not necessary, and they would strive to bring their kids ` to the next level’ and align more effectively with the Organization (school) vision and mission.

Republished with permission and originally published at Sakalya Holistic Solutions’s LinkedIn

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