Tree's Company

Outside Bengaluru, a Nofrills Homestay Built Around a Mango Tree. Srinath Perur Climbs in for Some Silence.
 

- Srinath Perur

Some years ago I worked in a corporate office awash with garbled management-speak. People were given to saying things like, “We’ll come to the nitty-gritties later. Give me the 30,000-foot view.” We were incapable of having a meeting or a discussion without calling it a brainstorming session. Which produced something we called actionable items (though not much ever seemed to get done). The one thing we sought above all else was traction. All meetings and conference calls ended with the promise that another would be set up “once we have some traction” on the actionable items of this one. We sent emails to our managers saying we would revert back—it was always revert back—once we had traction on whatever it was we were supposed to be doing.