Management lessons from Navratri festival0

India is a land of festivals, where people from different religions, languages, cultures and regions live together in harmony. The wide variety of festivals celebrated in India is a true manifest of its rich culture and tradition. There are many Indian festivals celebrated with equal enthusiasm bringing sense of togetherness among people from across communities and Navaratri is one of them. rnNavaratri is recognized as a festival of unity, harmony and fraternity and is celebrated all over India. Nine days, nine different colours, add beauty to this festival. Each colour has its own sayings and they together make this festival colourful. Don't you think our life is also the same? Our life is also beautiful, just we need to accept and adapt people around with their views and opinions, strengths and weaknesses to make our life colourful. We may tend to criticize and blame the current situation and failures we are passing through, but these colours tell us to accept them happily as those are lessons and teachings for life. Garba is a dance form been performed significantly at times of Navratri. Usually traditional garbas are performed around a lamp lit in the centre or a picture or statue of the Goddess Shakti. This lamp represents life and the rings of dancers revolving in cycles around lamp signify the phases of our life. Sometimes we are able to see the flame inside the lamp while sometimes we don't. But in order to maintain the balance, we should keep moving happily. The uniformity in dress, dance-steps, and handclaps synchronized all at a time, denotes discipline, coordination, management and integrity. If such synergy is adapted in our work culture then surely the outcomes are spectacular. One may be capable of playing excellently as an individual, but here the challenge lies in playing with the whole team. If a person is performing well, maybe he would not be recognized easily, but if the team performs well each one of its members gets an appreciation, which says one should be a team player. As an act of spirituality people practice complete nine day fast. The fast denotes devotion and belief towards Maa Durga. Similarly if we work hard and put dedicated efforts our success is cheerful. As a tradition many people walk bare foot in these days, likewise one should come out of his own shoes and analyse his/her own performance even when they are out of their comfort zone. Lastly, as this festival has the significance of good winning over bad, even we as individuals can work on eliminating our weaknesses and substandard qualities so as to make our life as glorious as the face of Maa Durga and vow to spread cheerfulness of Joy around us.0