One day Rabindra Nath Tagore was very upset. His wife was constantly pestering him to pay the electricity and the credit card bills. Tagore found he had no money left. Now what to do? He never worked for anyone. People were not ready to accept him as a poet, author nor an intellectual. But he has to run the household expenses. He decided that he will do a job as per his liking and capability. He applied for the post of a “creative editor” in a giant engineering firm dealing with steel, automobiles, chemicals etc.
The giant engineering firm had a lot of in-house journals which were circulated among the employees so as to keep them abreast of the latest “visions”, “goals” and “ideals” of the company. Similarly for their “promos” of different products they needed a person with a creative talent who could coin in ‘catchy’ phrase lines which would appeal to the public, shareholders, connected even remotely with the Company.
Mrs. Renuka Agarwal, HR Head of the company was given the task of finding out a “creative editor” for the company. After doing her graduation she opted for a PGDM in HR from a reputed Management Institute. Immediately she got a job at an equally reputed steel company owned by an illiterate steel magnate. There were no stopping for her as she jumped from one company to another with the ease of a trapeze artist. The only thing worried her was her upper lip hair growth.
Mrs. Agarwal handed over the whole job of hunting down a creative editor to an outside agency. They promptly gave ads in the job portals and waited for the applications to arrive. A huge number of applications were received by the company which included the application of Tagore also. Then they shortlisted the applications through a computer. Certain key words like creative writing, leadership qualities, essays, write ups were fed into the computer. The soft ware programs designed to scan the applications rejected the application of Tagore as his CV and covering letter did not had those key words. Tagore’s application was not thrown in to the dust bin but went straight into the recycle bin.
Tagore felt irritated. He headed to the company Headquarters and met one of the Directors with a copy of the application. The Director looked at him and the application. “So you have written poems and novels, can you show us some poems which have been published?” Say, how you call yourself a creative person? Tagore was dumb struck. He just murmured --- “Can I meet the Chairman of the Company?” The director grudgingly allowed him to go the Chairman’s chamber.
“See Mr. Tagore, how can I take you in my company when I see you have not done any formal education whereas the other applicants are highly educated with also a Management degree? You do not have any leadership qualities nor did you participated in any “group activities” and you are trying to impress me in believing that you will open a “gurukul” type school some where in Bolpur. Have you done any financial management otherwise how will you manage a school and later a university? Mrs. Renuka Agarwal, our HR Head has also pointed out that you write disastrous poetry in your Face book. Look how smart is she? She had already done an Internet search about you. So Mr. Tagore I am sorry ……
The cell phone of Rabindra Nath Tagore rings. The caller at the other end informs him his selection for the Nobel Prize in literature. Mr. Tagore ends the call and tells the Chairman --- “so you can select an army commissioned officer, he will be having leadership qualities and also creative skills in penetrating the enemy territory, best of luck Mr.Chairman”.
Sitendu De is the author of this post.
Disclaimer: This is not a real story. It is a satire only which is not intended to hurt anyone in particular.
CL is the short form for Creative Leadership.
Posts
