Ananth Ananda - Leaders & Their Vat of Indigo Dye (a la the Pancha Tantra)

Leaders & Their Vat of Indigo Dye

The Pancha Tantra (The Five Texts)

Indian readers would be familiar with this Leadership manual. Vishnu Sharma's 'Pancha Tantra' is an age-old treasure trove of beautiful stories, inspiring and embellishing other such tales the world over. Aesop's Fables is one of the more well-known ones. Especially so for those sadly besotted with the wrong idea of the Greco-Roman civilization (beautiful & interesting otherwise in its own right) as the font of Human Civilizational progress.

The World's First User-friendly Self-Help Book

Most Indians would know that the Pancha Tantra (literally Five Books) were crafted by a wise Brahmin, Pandit Vishnu Sharma. He did this at the behest of a king. The king believed his sons needed help to become responsible and capable leaders. In fact, it is believed they may have been imbeciles to begin with. Surely the world's first Self-Help Book on Leadership. Possibly the first tome devoted to Leadership itself.

The Jackal & The Vat of Indigo Dye

One very relevant story in these days of increasing make believe is the tale of the Jackal that accidentally falls into a vat of indigo dye. This happens when it enters a dyer's place on the fringes of a forest to escape a pack of dogs. When the Jackal manages to get out of the vat, it sees the dogs run away at its mere sight. When the Jackal moves back into the jungle, it slowly realizes that the other creatures were looking at it in awe and fear. They had never before seen any denizen of the forest so coloured.

Maximizing A Situation

The Jackal soon realizes it can exploit the situation. It proclaims itself the heaven-sent ruler of the animals. For a few days even animals mightier than the Jackal are under the indigo coloured one's sway. The Jackal lives the high life. All of the jungle is at its beck and call. But such good times never last.

The Unmasking

One day, storm clouds started brewing. The temperature fell. A cool wind blew. A pack of jackals in the distance naturally responded to the change in weather. They started howling. The indigo coloured Jackal also responded to this trigger with its own sequence of howls. The other animals looked at their King in surprise. Maybe it also began raining and the indigo dye in some place may have started wearing off. The Jackal was not prepared for this. The victims of the fraud set about on the surprised Jackal.

'The Jackal's Justification'

It is not too difficult to also see the Jackal's point of view. For long it may have been harassed by the pack of dogs. It may have actually been hoping for some luck to improve its life and livelihood. It may have seen the indigo dye as a heaven-sent opportunity to improve its lot. A turning point in its life hitherto full of hardship and harassment.

The Peter Principle - Rising to Our Level of Incompetence

Sadly enough, often we come across Leaders and Managers occupying positions which they cannot do justice to. As per the (Laurance J) Peter Principle, they may rise to their level of incompetence whereat their indigo dye starts coming off. But it is also not uncommon to note some folks who manage to move from one predicament to another with aplomb. To the neutral/ trained eye, the inadequacies may be glaring. They may also have patrons and godfathers fully convinced of The Jackal's Justification. Some indigo dyed jackals may also have more lives than even the proverbial cat!