By Meera Sharath Chandra
Founder CEO & CCO, Tigress Tigress
When in India, we have always chosen to holiday at tiger sanctuaries. The word holiday is a misnomer, really. It is seriously hard work, crazy hours and uncertain outcomes rolled into one.
We would wake up each day at an ungodly 3am for a morning safari. Shivering as we got into an open-top jeep and into the forest, we’d leave behind a whole year of commuting through the concrete jungle amidst blaring horns and bumper-to-bumper traffic. But if we thought this was going to be a cruise, we couldn’t have been more wrong. The ride is always an emotional roller-coaster – excitement and fear, timelessness and frenzy, adrenalin rush and peace all at once.
An all-knowing driver-guide who has stared many a wild beast in the eye slows down every now and again to show us a pugmark, a fishing owl with eyes wide shut or a pack of wild dogs on a kill. After miles of taking in fifty shades of green, we crawl to a standstill, hidden by the tall grass and the thickets. Eons later, the monkeys begin to chatter in an early warning system and we know the king is on the move. Birds that had remained unseen among the boughs of century-old trees suddenly flutter in fear and take to the skies. Hair standing on end, we look around as spotted deer twitch their ears nervously, look timidly over their shoulders and flee for their lives. No one needs to tell us the moment is upon us.
We still cannot describe in words what makes the meeting so magical. Is it the hushed silence of the approach? Is it the sheer beauty of the beast? Is it the quiet power over the territory? Or how lost you can get when you look straight into the eye of the tiger? We stare unashamedly, from the time we see him on the cliff above to the time he strides down to less than ten feet away from us. He turns, looking at us with the graciousness of royalty towards any guests passing through his kingdom. And then, with the same majestic gait, the same ripple of his sinews, the same silent footfall, he is gone. The forest rustles with cool gusts of relief and lesser species drop their guard, but never entirely.
We are somehow drawn to do this twice a day, every day, till we have to reluctantly return to reality, tired and energised at the same time. The next year it is another sanctuary, another tiger, seen while on elephant back or from a machaan among the trees. But being out there, feeling those primal instincts, understanding the eco-system and listening to the calls of the wild, has made us more prepared for corporate life.
Unknowingly, we have been through a conclave on communication. A fortnight each year, where we witness the real practitioners of social media at work, the true crowdsourcers at their best, brands marking their turf, subliminal wi-fi communication, the finest display of competitive advantages and the real meaning of the worldwide web we live in.
We also now understand that client who fixes meetings at insane hours, that boss whose approach sets off alarm signals, those species who make up the organisational food chain and of course the networking that goes on at popular watering holes. It all suddenly makes sense.
The jungles are different. The laws are quite the same.
Feedback: meera@tigresstigress.com
