Swag vs Sense

Nostalgia caused me to re-watch an old Rajinikanth movie - Priya - after seeing a reference to it on Facebook. There is this scene near the climax where Rajinikanth - essaying the role of Sujatha's lawyer-detective Ganesh - is in a quadrangle of high rise buildings in one flat of which his client - Priya - is held captive. Trying to locate exactly which flat she is in, he disguises himself as a beggar and breaks out into song, calling for her to give some sign of where she was held so that he could rescue her.

Now, singing so the song can reach some 15 stories above and penetrate through soundproofing is something every movie hero can do. Expecting Priya (Sridevi, if you are THAT interested), who he had seen - about an hour ago - trussed up like a chicken and gagged to boot, to somehow signal him AND to expect that he would looking in the right direction to see that signal is all in a day's work. These things do not need a Rajinikanth. There is no special Rajini swag in all this, any common or garden-variety hero could do the same.

The thing is that the kidnap gang sends a couple of members to find who was caterwauling Priya's name on the streets. AND they look at Rajini and pass him by as a non-entity. Whereupon, he smirks and swirls his cane victoriously and the entire theater erupts in whistles and applause. Thereafter, he takes up singing again for a sign from the heroine.

You smirk, showing that you KNOW that these guys are the gang members but it does not cross your mind that following them will lead you more certainly to Priya than to sing for the poor woman to show you the sign? But, then, had he done that, do you think that these whistles and applause would have happened? Rajini swag beats commonsense and the director knows it!

It is not just with Rajinikanth. Swag invariably not only beats sense, it totally obscures commonsense. Take the way you vote, for example. I mean, if a guy says he will make the corrupt destitute and put lakhs into each of your accounts and another says he will work to eradicate poverty, who gets your vote? YOU want swag, no matter how irrational it is, and THEN you complain that people make wild promises which they never intend to keep. If you let swag beats sense, what do you expect? People WILL try to outdo each other in swag...if they can.

Now, we management guys are a lot more savvy. I mean, we do not let swag get in the way of commonsense. We rename it things like 'Executive Presence', 'Leadership' etc and let THAT get in the way of commonsense. Catch us letting a lowly thing like swag get in the way!

But get this one thing very clear...NEVER let Sense get in the way of Swag if you want to get ahead in life!