HINDUS DO NOT READ THIS BLOG
In my classes on LATERAL THINKING I request my trainees to come up with as many uses as they can, for a marker—the type one uses on chart paper. The maximum a trainee has come up with is 65! I suggest you try this exercise. One unusual use for a marker by the way is to paint a bindi on a Hindu girl’s forehead. More about the bindi later.

I give you this example to highlight another game in my repertoire of creativity techniques—the maxim ‘HOLY COWS MAKE THE BEST BURGERS.’

The reference is to the several beliefs, policies and practices that are part of the DNA of any organization and are adhered to without anyone questioning the relevance or validity or even the utility of such practices.

Take for example my experience with a hotel in Ahmadabad. I checked into this hotel one hot summer afternoon and requested the room boy to get me a bottle of beer. He reminded me that Gujarat was a dry state. However like any pragmatic Gujarati he was helpful enough to suggest that I could obtain a temporary permit to imbibe alcohol on ‘health grounds’ and would I take the trouble of going down to the Excise Clerk who had an office in the hotel basement? Off I went and plonked myself in front of the desk of that August and, for me, a powerful benefactor.

He contemptuously shoved an application form under my nose. This form was in Hindi without an English translation. The first line shocked me. Hold your breath, practice meditation, say your prayers for India. The opening line read

SHARABI KA NAAM! [IN ENGLISH IT MEANS - NAME OF THE DRUNKARD].
After a hearty laugh that the clerk could not understand why, I filled up the form, bought myself some beer and proceeded to my room and brooded over the fate of my country given such burgers! I wonder why no one, not even the IAS officers who claim to be the cream of India’s talent, has ever destroyed this Holy Cow and replaced it with a more civilized ‘Name of the applicant’?

I ask my trainees to list the many such Holy Cows that infest our organisations.

Believe me even our nations, communities, and religions are full of Holy Cows—things that may have been relevant, understandable or useful or even essential for survival at some point of time in the past but need to be discarded now.

Hindus will accept that some communities have a practice of a women’s mangal sutra and bindi being removed when she is widowed. This is a painful ceremony and one that is abhorrent for many reasons. I was witness to one such occasion. The women’s screams shook me and served to strengthen my resolve to reform at least my family.

The video provided below shows one such ceremony. It also shows how we may reform by learning to laugh creatively at our foibles and idiosyncrasies.

I would be indebted to you if you send me your list of holy cows in your community or organization. I will mention this in my training programmes and if you wish I shall announce your name too.