Different Planets

From astrology to office politics

- Devdutt Pattanaik

When Alpesh took over as the manager of a huge multiplex in a Tier 2 Indian town, he suddenly found himself heading a team of forty people. Some he liked instantly. Some he did not. Some he found positively repulsive. But he did not have the luxury of firing anyone. He had to work with all of them. And he wondered how? And strangely he found his answer in astrology. Not in the content of astrology - but in the structure of astrology.

As a child, he was taught that in Hindu mythology Devas are good and Asuras are bad. But whenever his mother made him visit the shrine dedicated to the Nava-Grahas, the nine gods of Indian astrology, he found there not only Devas and their Guru, Brihaspati, but also two Asuras, namely Rahu and Ketu, and their Guru, Shukra. In all prayers and rituals, the two 'demons' are acknowledged and included as equals. He was told that all Grahas matter. Good or bad, they formed a team and none could be excluded. It dawned on Alpesh that before him were his Nava-Grahas (not nine but forty) and he had to find a way to work with all of them. Exclusion was not an option.

Alpesh knew that each Graha had a particular characteristic and this could not be changed. Like the