Paternal Duty Redefined

I was busy working from my home when I found my college-going son on his hands and knees examining my chair. I was first scared assuming he was trying to defuse a bomb or something. I later took comfort realising that it would have just resulted in a small incident in a large city so, no-one would isolate a common man like me to take such effort. ‘Son, have you lost something?’ I asked in genuine concern. ‘My future!’ was his stoic reply. ‘Your future?’ I feared for his intellect. ‘How did you conclude your future is under my chair of all places?’ Still under the chair he commented like my car mechanic, ‘Firstly, the spring is small, rusty and more important, a board is missing.’ I was utterly confused. My new chair of just one month for which I had paid a bomb was now devalued by a non-expert!

Trying to recall if I had sent the guarantee card, I asked my son to explain. ‘This chair is styled in Europe but has no sense of the Indian demand’ my son commented expertly. ‘Pray what is ignored by the expert designer?’ I asked. ‘The springboard for the next generation should be in your seat’ he replied. Looking at my still more confused expression he continued to explain, ‘ In India, the princely states were abolished but the birthright to the seat of power is kept in the family. Today, the tradition continues. The seat of the father is the springboard of career for the next generation. You already know that we had a string of Prime Ministers and Chief Ministers chosen primarily for their lineage.’

‘Perhaps that is true for Indian Politics in which I have no career by choice’ I declared. ‘What about the Indian Corporate arena?’ he took out the punch in my argument. ‘Sons and daughters are made CEOs just because their father worked hard. Companies from yarn to liquor; communication to Infrastructure are controlled by children. They are appointed for their lineage’. He could not be wrong as he had placed Reliance on facts of Indian Corporate world. I explained that ‘succession management needs to be defined in all companies and there are various types. The one you are referring to one of the many types and this one is called Succession by Relation (Essar) to achieve enlargement of efforts of the earlier generation. In Management terms, it is formally known as F.L.O.P.’ Giving me a disgusted look my son said, ‘Now I suppose you will tell me that such persons so appointed are flop in their job.’ ‘No son’ I told in a neutral tone, ‘it stands for Family Leverage Over Professionalism. You are aware how acronym oriented the management students are.’

My son looked pensive as he gave my argument a moment’s thought and brightened as he said, ‘From the point of the younger generation, the plan of succession should be F.A.R.’ Now it was my turn to forecast his argument. ‘I suppose you will tell me that if children get appointed they will go far in rank in the corporation? Like one employee who got promoted from the mailroom to Vice President in just a week. When he went to accept the award, he uttered, “Thank you Dad” to the CEO.’ Shaking his head like a wise man my son replied in the same neutral tone I had used earlier, ‘This is also an acronym and this one stands for Family Advantage Regeneration where the practices pass from generation to generation and so also the vision.’