Skip to main content

Puppet Show at Workplace



You want me to be creative wearing the rigid straitjacket you’ve fabricated. 
You fix the routine of my each day with sirens that bombard my mailbox.
You started as my leader and turned slowly,
Like a mythical insect drawing nutrition from some invisible god’s ignorance,
Into a gargantuan monster whose shadow bedevilled my footsteps
Wherever I went, whatever I did.
And you chastise me for not being creative.

Can a puppet be creative?

Epilogue: “Being creative means being able to relax into uncertainty and confusion.”  [Fritjof Capra, The Hidden Connections]

Source
Labels:

Comments

  1. Anmol RawatJuly 15, 2014 at 12:52 AM

    Very well expressed and a good thought.
    Also love the vocab :)
    A puppet can't be creative :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 15, 2014 at 11:49 AM

      The vocab is directly proportional to one's emotions :)

      Delete
  2. ManiparnaJuly 15, 2014 at 8:32 AM

    Actually they don't have the right too..creativity is also measured in our modern workplace..a bit of this and a spoonful of that..Oh yes..you're creative..how dare you mix that spice without asking me ? darn your creativity !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 15, 2014 at 11:51 AM

      Very right, you are, Maniparna. Everything is measured today. Only the boss can determine how much of each ingredient is acceptable. In Maruti company, I heard, the boss decides when the staff can pee!

      Delete
  3. AnonymousJuly 15, 2014 at 9:05 AM

    Lovely unique side to an expression....creativity flutters wings

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 15, 2014 at 11:51 AM

      Glad you loved my creativity, though I'm also metamorphosing into a puppet. Is this a swansong? I hope not. I know how to redeem myself.

      Delete
  4. Anita SabatJuly 15, 2014 at 9:56 AM

    How true, Sir!
    How we stiffle creativity & then demand it :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 15, 2014 at 11:52 AM

      Especially in schools? You know it.

      Delete
    2. Anita SabatJuly 15, 2014 at 9:35 PM

      Yes Sir!
      Watched Taare Zameen Par yesterday again & my belief was reinforced...We need more creativity & allowing freedom to our kids to pursue their interests...

      Delete
  5. Rajeev MoothedathJuly 15, 2014 at 10:19 AM

    So very true of the corporate scene! similar sentements I had expressed in my poem"Employee in Knots"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 15, 2014 at 11:54 AM

      It's interesting (and more consoling) to know that there are a lot of people who find my poem relevant.

      Delete
  6. Kokila guptaJuly 15, 2014 at 11:30 AM

    Hmm... by venting out feelings... beautifully in verse ! creativity of puppets:)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Alok VatsJuly 15, 2014 at 11:41 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Alok VatsJuly 15, 2014 at 11:42 AM

    Nicely expressed Matheikal jee. Can a puppet be creative? I don't think so, and I guess this is the reason why companies are becoming less productive these days. I suppose, just because of all these only I wrote that post on why quitting job is becoming the option of serious consideration among young generation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 15, 2014 at 11:56 AM

      Companies are converting people into robots - mechanical creatures who follow orders or instructions or programmes. Pathetic. I have seen schools where the authority/authorities have to sanction what kind of posters students can or cannot prepare!

      Delete
  9. UnknownJuly 15, 2014 at 1:35 PM

    This is for the first time that I have seen your poetic skills. A puppet cannot be creative. A creative mind is a free mind. If a person is not allowed to think and implement freely he would turn into a robot, a preprogrammed machine which can only execute instructions in a fixed order.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 15, 2014 at 3:35 PM

      Poetry can come only from emotions, Namrata. I generally control my emotions. Or the emotions are not strong enough for poetry.

      Do the systems today allow people to think and act freely? Rigid structures are being imposed on workers in the name of quality control, profit, productivity, or whatever.

      Delete
  10. UnknownJuly 15, 2014 at 4:35 PM

    Truely said, Tomichan! Creativity and autonomy go hand in hand! Let it bloom and not restrict by instruction. Well written!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 15, 2014 at 7:11 PM

      Instruction is good and needed. But when, for whom, how much, for what...? Can adults be treated like children and ordered about? I quoted Dr Fritjof Capra in the epilogue. Let me quote him again from the same book: "A machine can be controlled; a living system, according to the systemic understanding of life, can only be disturbed. In other words, organizations cannot be controlled through direct interventions, but they can be influenced by giving impulses rather than instructions. ... intelligent, alert people rarely carry out instructions exactly to the letter. They always modify and reinterpret them, ignore some parts and add others of their own making."

      I come across management systems that want their employees to be unquestioning, unthinking robots. Follow the orders or get the hell out - that's the attitude.

      Delete
  11. Karan ShahJuly 15, 2014 at 5:38 PM

    you have hit the bulls eye with this...bang on!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 15, 2014 at 7:14 PM

      I can see that many employees today are in the position that Karl Marx described as "nothing to lose but their chains".... Frustration makes us aim directly?!

      Delete
  12. 外人, gaijin...an outsiderJuly 15, 2014 at 6:10 PM

    Very well put Tomichan Ji!

    It's unfortunate that not just majority of our schools but a large section of work environments also do not encourage free and creative thinking, and believe in 'following the norm'.

    Pretty sad utilization of what one should be ideally hired for: 'thought process and brains'. Following norms and standards does not mean that we should not question the status quo and look beyond what is...isn't that the only way to grow?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 15, 2014 at 7:17 PM

      Who wants the growth of the employees? The growth of the firm is all that matters. And if the firm's avowed goals and ulterior motives are different, then chaos ensues. Some choose to be robots, robot-hood is thrust upon some others, and a few manage to find their way out. OUT.

      Delete
  13. NishantJuly 15, 2014 at 11:12 PM

    creativity descends upon us, we cant descend upon creativity :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 16, 2014 at 5:00 PM

      You mean we can't ascend? :)

      Delete
    2. NishantJuly 18, 2014 at 12:43 PM

      when creativity descends we allow ourselves to ascend, it a mutual collaboration, not a single handed job :D

      Delete
    3. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 18, 2014 at 10:12 PM

      Right, buddy.

      The only problem is that it works in ideal conditions: Normal Temperature and Pressure :)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
44 comments
Read more

The Second Crucifixion

  ‘The Second Crucifixion’ is the title of the last chapter of Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins’s magnum opus Freedom at Midnight . The sub-heading is: ‘New Delhi, 30 January 1948’. Seventy-three years ago, on that day, a great soul was shot dead by a man who was driven by the darkness of hatred. Gandhi has just completed his usual prayer session. He had recited a prayer from the Gita:                         For certain is death for the born                         and certain is birth for the dead;                         Therefore over the inevitable                         Thou shalt not grieve . At that time Narayan Apte and Vishnu Karkare were moving to Retiring Room Number 6 at the Old Delhi railway station. They walked like thieves not wishing to be noticed by anyone. The early morning’s winter fog of Delhi gave them the required wrap. They found Nathuram Godse already awake in the retiring room. The three of them sat together and finalised the plot against Gand
6 comments
Read more

The Final Farewell

Book Review “ Death ends life, not a relationship ,” as Mitch Albom put it. That is why, we have so many rituals associated with death. Minakshi Dewan’s book, The Final Farewell [HarperCollins, 2023], is a well-researched book about those rituals. The book starts with an elaborate description of the Sikh rituals associated with death and cremation, before moving on to Islam, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and finally Hinduism. After that, it’s all about the various traditions and related details of Hindu final rites. A few chapters are dedicated to the problems of widows in India, gender discrimination in the last rites, and the problem of unclaimed dead bodies. There is a chapter titled ‘Grieving Widows in Hindi Cinema’ too. Death and its rituals form an unusual theme for a book. Frankly, I don’t find the topic stimulating in any way. Obviously, I didn’t buy this book. It came to me as quite many other books do – for reasons of their own. I read the book finally, having shelv
10 comments
Read more

Vultures and Religion

When vultures become extinct, why should a religion face a threat? “When the vultures died off, they stopped eating the bodies of Zoroastrians…” I was amused as I went on reading the book The Final Farewell by Minakshi Dewan. The book is about how the dead are dealt with by people of different religious persuasions. Dead people are quite useless, unless you love euphemism. Or, as they say, dead people tell no tales. In the end, we are all just stories made by people like the religious woman who wrote the epitaph for her atheist husband: “Here lies an atheist, all dressed up and no place to go.” Zoroastrianism is a religion which converts death into a sordid tale by throwing the corpses of its believers to vultures. Death makes one impure, according to that religion. Well, I always thought, and still do, that life makes one impure. I have the support of Lord Buddha on that. Life is dukkha , said the Enlightened. That is, suffering, dissatisfaction and unease. Death is liberation
4 comments
Read more

Cats and Love

No less a psychologist than Freud said that the “time spent with cats is never wasted.” I find time to spend with cats precisely for that reason. They are not easy to love, particularly if they are the country variety which are not quite tameable, and mine are those. What makes my love affair with my cats special is precisely their unwillingness to befriend me. They’d rather be in their own company. “In ancient time, cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this,” Terry Pratchett says. My cats haven’t, I’m sure. Pratchett knew what he was speaking about because he loved cats which appear frequently in his works. Pratchett’s cats love independence, very unlike dogs. Dogs come when you call them; cats take a message and get back to you as and when they please. I don’t have dogs. But my brother’s dogs visit us – Maggie and me – every evening. We give them something to eat and they love that. They spend time with us after eating. My cats just go away without even a look af
9 comments
Read more