The Snake at House 84 and The Infinite Game
“Yesterday a young friend called up, and our conversation reminded me of the snake at house 84” I was writing my morning pages as I spoke to Lulu, my parrot. Lulu was playing with a pair of dice on my table. He looked up and gave me a curious look.
“I hate snakes. Everybody hates snakes”. He paused for a while. “Are you talking about the snake in the snake and ladder game? The reptile in house 84 which swallows you and takes you to house 5, or something like that?”
“You got it right, Lulu. I have been thinking about that snake and obviously his bite is symbolic. I am remembering him because my young friend was praising my work. And for a change, his good words did not work magic on me.”
“Riddles, man, riddles.”
“I was attending a training program at IIM-Ahmedabad when the snake at house 84 bit me hard. In 1991. I was forty years old then and thought that I knew everything in industrial relations though I was careful not to say it openly.”
“Wise of you! So?”
“Prof. NR Sheth delivered a lecture and he spoke for ninety minutes without a reference note in his hand. He held me spell bound. It was a flow of flawless arguments and deep insights. I realized that my unspoken claim of having ‘arrived on the scene’ was imaginary and baseless. By the end of his lecture, I held Dr Sheth in deep respect; I had not met him earlier. I realized where I stood, and I felt humbled.”
“That was the proverbial snake bite? It must have bitten your ego. Now I understand why you said that the snake at house 84 brought you down to house 5. Ha, ha. Good snake bite, I say. Do you know why Lord Shiva has a snake around his neck? Snake represents ego, so it is a symbol of his having ‘conquered’ his ego.”
“I also felt if I could ever speak on industrial relations like him. Ex tempore. Yet deep and well-organized thoughts. I wondered what he did to reach such an exalted level.”
“Yes, he was a great professor and researcher.”
“As if his lecture and the assault on my ego was not enough, the next lecture by Dr Pradip Khandwala had the same impact. He too spoke for ninety minutes and I felt very small. I then knew that there was a long road ahead to reach their level. Unending road perhaps.”
“Good you hit the ground with a thud.”
“The trouble was how to reach there, their exalted level. It was not about delivering a fine lecture alone.”
“I get you; you are thinking about the high expertise level or excellence level.”
“Right. I wondered when, how and if I will ever be like Dr Sheth and Dr Khandwala”
“If you ask wrong question, you get wrong answer, my friend”
“What’s that?”
“You can never be like any other person. Don’t you know the story of Bradman? He appreciated a shot played by Len Hutton and decided to hit a similar shot. When he tried, he got out. I don’t know if it is a real story, but the lesson holds good.”
“Which is?”
“You are unique. Play the game your way. Keep Dr Sheth and Dr Khandwala as ‘sources of inspiration for excellence’, but not as ‘goals’, and that’s their role in your life”
“But how do I ever become like them?
“Let me repeat. You can never be like them. Keep them as your standards of excellence.”
“They spoke of everyday experiences and not so much about technical stuff; culling out insights for applying in developing relationships. They said we actually speak of conflicts when we speak of relationships, and that we should focus on ‘developing’ relationship with individuals and with groups like unions. I wondered how could they distill experience to derive their insights; what does a person do to learn that skill?”
“That’s simple and yet difficult. Live life sensitively, and be in the ‘present’. We sleep walk through life, right?”
“Hmmm …..”
“You can never be like them but you can be at high level of excellence, and remember, individual development is not a competition. Your world is different from everybody else, your context is different, you read different books than them, you meet different people who become your source of inspiration, and I can go on differentiating.”
“I get it what you mean is that every person is unique.”
“And must focus only on his or her development. The problem is when you mistake development for a ‘finite game.’ Haven’t you heard of Finite and Infinite Games? That holds the answer. A finite game has a clear beginning, middle and end. Like a game of Football. Or Cricket. But an infinite game does not have defined rules. It has no clear beginning, no clear end.”
“This is a riddle to me. What do you mean by not having a start and end to a game? What kind of game is that?”
“Is there a competition in a relationship? Do husband and wife compete, is there a winner? Or among good friends? Do they decide who ‘wins’ in a relationship? Simon Sinek asks a fundamental question; and here it is: ‘when we die will anyone among us be declared a ‘winner of life’’?”
“Winner of Life? What a question! Are you saying that one’s own development is an infinite game?”
“You got me right!” Lulu pushed the pair of dice over the table top, they fell down.
“Yes, there is no competition with anybody, there is no benchmark, and there is no goal like becoming like Dr Sheth or Dr Khandwala, there is no winning, there is just playing to your full potential. We have to strive to be better than what we were yesterday.”
“And if you do it, there will be no snake in the house 84 too!” Lulu looked at me. Parrots hate snakes.
Vivek S Patwardhan
“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” **** “Aroehan: Creating Dream Villages in Mokhada by 2025: “No Malnutrition Deaths, No Child ‘Out of School’, Reduction in migration by 50%.”
Amazing . Sometimes the simplest examples have the deepest message
We are blessed to be readers of your amazing and meaningful blogs . These blogs are words of wisdom taken out from sea of knowledge for readers’ benefit. Thank you so much sir. Regards
I thought I was in for a thriller of a short story and you have dived into a new genre but then I am left with the infinite game of learning and the incentive of having the snake around my neck instead 🙂
Really enjoyed this read, my favorite of yours in the recent past!
In the now virtual/hybrid workplace the challenge is really of the infinite in so many ways
Very nicely written and truly conveys what one should do to attain excellence…
This is a good read! Now every time I do look at a Snakes & Ladders game board, I will remember the Snake in the 84th House!….there are so many insights here… that I need to be grounded, that I can climb a ladder again, that I can climb different ladders and rise in different directions… and, of course that there may be a snake in the 96th, and 102nd and in the nth house after that… This Lulu is really a wise bird!
Excellently written article. I loved the title. Choosing this title speaks volumes of the thought in giving a message or several messages wielding the pen.
It also shows the importance of how well one plays the dice that leads to one’s own development.
Playing like Shakuni could bring one to 5 from 84.
Keep writing,Sir.
Thank you Vivek …initially when I saw the title,I linked 84 to Housie !! The snake put me on Track- perhaps due to the bite ? The Snakes and ladders game is a very good example that you have shared to drive home the message
Excellence is a journey and indeed it is very good to take inspiration from role models of Excellence .Our School motto was ” Play the Game” – I admit that at that time this was not so well understood, as now.
Always Good to learn from your blogs
Regards,
Vineet
Was fortunate to spend 2/3 hrs with Prof Narayan Sheth at Abad on an assignment in 1980.
An individuals development is one’s own game – a fundamental and a basic – driven home in a subtle way – as only Vivek can do! It reminded me of
Prof. Jerome Joseph and Dr. Khandwala’s 90 minutes without notes and without books. Million thanks Vivek..
Thank you Vivek. Really a nice read and a reminder about house 84. I resonate the experience of interaction with Dr.Khandwala , where in we asked about the difficulty they face in dealing with the top class students they onboard at IIM, and answer was we make them realize how their knowledge in their own field is abysmally low. So start with a learning mind and you grow.
Dear Mr. Vivek
Your Blog makes an interesting read.
It is often said , the best among us are not more gifted than the rest. ,they just take little steps each day as they March toward their biggest life and they arrive at a place called Extraordinary. In their sustained efforts they do get inspiration from the earlier achievers who excelled.
Vivek is one such Achiever to inspire the contemporary and budding HR Personnel
Aravamudhan
Good one Vivek. And now everyone says ” How can I be like Vivek Patwardhan?” And the game goes on. I think that this is good because it inspires. Inspiration drives achievement. So it is good. But that does not mean that one has to imitate.But that is easier said than done!!!
Another matter stroke from you Sir. Thank you very much for this insight.
Keep guiding us ?
*master stroke ?
Fabulous points made,Sir … And very eloquently ! Lands home so easily and instinctively.
Thank you for getting me to go past my fear of snakes ? and read this blogpost. Found many anchors to guide me and get me off the competitive mindset. It is a journey in itself.
Your post also made me go back and look up my notes from the book mastery. Am taking the liberty to share something that resonates with me and would look forward to hearing your views sir.
Aikido instructor George Leonard on mastery:
”How long will it take me to master Aikido?” a prospective student asks.
“How long do you expect to live?” is the only respectable response.
Ultimately, practice is the path of mastery. If you stay on it long enough, you’ll find it to be a vivid place, with its ups and downs, its challenges and comforts, its surprises, disappointments, and unconditional joys. You’ll take your share of bumps and bruises while traveling – bruises of the ego as well as of the body, mind and spirit – but it might well turn out to be the most reliable thing in your life. Then, too, it might eventually make you a winner in your chosen field, if that’s what you’re looking for, and then people will refer to you as a master. But that’s not really the point.
What is mastery? At the heart of it, mastery is practice. Mastery is staying on the path.”
Source: Mastery