They Say a Picture is Worth More Than a Thousand Words — So are One-liners — Thiyagarajan (Rajan) #JeenaIsiKaNaamHain

There’s a rare breed of humans which is extremely well-read, and very articulate as well. Surfeit of information and personality enhancement channels may have robbed us of our appreciation of this human quality, painstakingly built over time. Impressively, they have an answer to every question and can expertly fend off the odd-curved ball or two, with a repartee that will either have you in splits or make you deeply ponder.

Either way, it’s a lasting impression.

In a hybrid world where face-to-face human interactions are likely on the decline, quick intelligence backed by an elephantine memory may soon be a thing of the past. Why do you need to recollect information in a microsecond to be able to bridge disparate ideas in a free-flowing conversation, to make an impact, you may well ask?

After all, this skill has to be worked on over a lifetime. Instead, why don’t I quickly show you a Dashboard that has data plugged in and plotted in a manner that lends greater credibility? For our generation, data is everything — from oil to electricity to water to a flunkey robot that answers inane questions and just falls short of being a spouse. Oh really?

Let’s leave that charcha for another day.

Introducing Rajanism — the power of words spoken in the right context

Be that as it may, the lost art of intelligent conversation isn’t really lost when you have folks like Thiyagarajan around — Rajan to his friends and business associates. Sample this, from more recent times, now famously referred to as Rajanism: “What SVP and a few other banks did and blew up was to pick up pennies in front of a steam roller”.

Sharad Sharma — he was at Yahoo at that time — introduced me to Rajan, and I think it was 2008 or 9. Rajan was a product manager in a company called OnMobile and he had gained a lot of recognition through “MoMo” or Mobile Mondays — a community that he was running for startups. Sharad got him to program manage the NASSCOM Product Conclave (NPC) and get to know the way the Apex IT Association works. Rajan was also invited to NILF (NASSCOM’s India Leadership Forum) and I think he was rather impressed with the sheer scale — depth & breadth.

Strictly speaking, I, as a NASSCOM employee ought to have program-managed NPC that year but it was an area where I was a newbie. Whereas Rajan, had great expertise. In a way, that year, I was an apprentice and learnt the granularity of mapping tasks, stakeholders’ responsibilities and progress with the aid of digital tools and spreadsheets. A smattering of green, amber and red, populating Excel sheets became a regular feature that kept us on our toes. I can tell you he is a master in this and has an uncanny grip on numbers which he is able to recall in a split second that removes all doubts about the next course of action. It was a very rich experience and served me exceedingly well in the next edition of NPC when I tried to fit into his shoes.

Not shying away from calling out the truth & seeking deeper answers

Over many years now, Rajan and I have struck a warm friendship and we have partnered on many occasions in our efforts at community building. He reminds me of a bespectacled scientist who is methodical and digs deep for answers. Moreover, he is not limited by his domain and is forever seeking insights from diverse areas.

We worked very closely during my iSPIRT days and put together many initiatives. His extreme energy is infectious, and because of this, one makes nothing of working into the wee hours alongside him. He had worked in Intuit earlier and knew the names of many stalwarts from the Bay Area, particularly in Design Thinking. Every time I got into the car with him, a podcast would be played, and I benefitted expansively in gathering knowledge on areas that had still not become common currency in India.

The other quality that I admire in him is his fearlessness in calling out goof-ups. This is a very important quality that we should all foster continuously. While rude and abrasive behaviour should never be tolerated, somewhere, we need to point out the truth as well and help each other to raise the bar. Rajan was never rude; he was always constructive in his comments. I will give you an example.

At some point in time, he was disillusioned with the idea of “volunteering”, and he told me so in no uncertain terms when I presented myself as a “volunteer”. He was honest with me and may have sounded brutal at that point, but I respected his view. His grouse was simply this — volunteers have their parallel agenda which they try to converge with the association’s vision, often leading to derailment. He said, “Avinash ask me for what you want, and I will do it for you.” And he did! It was for an earlier Saasboomi event where I needed his help to make VC connects.

A Wizard — No Less — In Details

Rajan is extraordinarily good with documentation. He can write down the entire process flow which is easily consumable by the reader. He is very generous and is forever willing to document his expertise for the next set of leaders to improve upon.

In our world, there’s a perpetual clash of cultures between products and projects. Rajan is that bridge between the two — call him an expert product or project manager, and you’d be right on both occasions. Moreover, he can easily transition. I have observed that from very close quarters.

Prof. Rajan — my Parachute Packer

I call him Professor Rajan and he has shaped my thinking in a big way over all these years. He is also my Parachute Packer who has relentlessly worked behind the scenes to make big things happen — very very BIG things!

Rajan, my friend, here’s wishing you great health and immense success at Upekkha, your new venture.

And my dear reader, it would be remiss of me, if I didn’t share a few Rajanisms to make your day:

• There is no feedback on feedback. Context — Silence from the other end when you are desperately checking messages every 7.67 seconds, almost willing the device to pop up a response.
• Repetition doesn’t break a prayer. Context — things must be repeated over and over before people get it, and it sticks. Pray that it sticks!
• What OpenAI and related others are doing — tinkering, finding surprises and dealing with them.