Leadership Without Title

I used to go to jogger’s park in Viman Nagar, Pune for my morning walks and some exercise in the open Gym. There is another smaller park in Viman Nagar which is known as Biodiversity Park. It is a smaller one. Both these parks were closed for a while after the second wave. I started to go to biodiversity park after second wave, though it is smaller one and do not have any open gym also.

 

Why I prefer this park, that is the story today.

 

It is well maintained with the help of corporate support. However, one thing I noticed that lot many senior citizens were frequenting the park which was not the case earlier. So, I just explored to find out the reason. What I found that that all these senior citizens were having good discussion on current political, social and international scenario and the security cum caretaker guy was the most important participant in the all the discussions. In fact, he was generating a healthy discussion which is a most difficult task in the current environment.

Let us call him Paritosh.

 

He is from Madhya Pradesh and not a local Marathi Manus and most of these senior citizens are from Pune only.

So, I asked him “How do you develop a good relationship with these senior citizens, most of them you really do not know”

“It hardly takes any time to know all these people, they have so much of experience, I just ask them the simple question about their health and family and they all open up.”

“You are not a local guy, these all must be speaking in Marathi, do you understand them properly.”

“I have been to this place for about two years only, I understand a bit of Marathi and but cannot speak yet, it is hardly any impediment because I understand their body language very well . In fact, by now I understand the answer also. In any case, requirement is to listen to them which I do properly.

“How do you manage the discussion; people generally take different positions.”

“Yes, I generally keep mum, listen to them, after all , they are all senior people .

“But it is most difficult task?”

“Yes, it is and sometimes some of the members stop coming to park also after a heated discussion or they change their timings to avoid someone. I do make a call also some times.

“What do you tell them?”

“Not much, just that this park is permanent and so is our relationship, discussions are temporary.”

“Sometimes they must be angry with you as well.”

“Yes, when they get angry, they ask my qualification and I tell them that I am post graduate in Political Science.”

“Do you miss something if these senior citizens do not come to the park or they go to another park?”

“I spend 10 hours in this park and if I contribute to the physical and mental wellbeing of 10 senior citizen, I contribute to the happiness of 40 people ……It will be big loss to me if they do not come….”

“What happens when you go on leave?”

“I get the telephone calls from these people urging me to come back soon”

“You cannot be permanent here?”

“Yes, that is the possibility but my job is to do the same thing everywhere ….and I do that.”

Now, come to think of it, what this gentleman is doing? He is doing his job as a security man but managing so many things including the relationship with visitors which officially may not be part of his job but creates lot of positivity and wellbeing.

This is leadership without title. It does not have any prerequisite in terms of age, qualification, designation or title.

May we have more numbers of PARITOSH.