The Project Manager’s Life 3 - 10

The following sher can describe the chaos that results when a key delivery date is missed and too many people try to micro-manage the problem and spend everybody’s time trying to track daily status. It makes me think of the days I spent more time trying to get detailed status updates and prepare lengthy situation reports to send out to everyone who was even remotely concerned with the project than the time I actually spent focusing on resolving the problem and getting back on schedule.


नतीजा न निकला थके सब पयामी
वहाँ जाते जाते यहाँ आते आते

[पयामी = messenger]

शायर : मिरज़ा दाग़ देहलवी

نتيجہ نہ نکلا ، تھکے سب پيامي

وہاں جاتے جاتے ، يہاں آتے آتے

شاعر: مرزا داغ دہلوي

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At one time or another, we have all been pulled in too many directions and had demands made of us for which there just wasn’t enough time. I think this sher sums up how we must have felt.

इतने हिस्सों में बाँट गया हूँ मैं
मेरे हिस्से में कुछ बचा ही नहीं

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Every project manager has suffered because he could not find the right person to fulfill a specific roll on the project team. He has pestered the recruiters and explained his needs and wishes in great detail only to not see anyone who matches the requirements. This शेर written by मिरज़ा ग़ालिब in the late 1800’s describes the project manager’s plight. यह पुराना शेर अभी तक सच है ।
कोई उम्मीद बर नहीं आती
कोई सूरत नज़र नहीं आती

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With projects, we all know the dangers of over commitment. This sher by Israr Ansari sums it up.

FYI, this sher comes from a ghazal about love that is full of daard-e-dil. Now that I think of it, a project manager frequently experiences his own type of daard-e-dil.

वादा उतना ही करो जितना निभा सकते हो
ख़्वाब पूरा जो न हो वो न टिखाना मुझको

ख़्वाब = dream

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When it comes to our daily routine with projects, we all sometimes feel like we are being required to do this and do that without any respect for our bandwidth. The situation is often made even made worse when clients ask us for proposals to be submitted with ridiculous turn around times. Nazir Banarsi captured the feeling of desperation that these situations create very well, I think.

This sher, which is a matlaa*, is the first sher that I learned four or five years ago. When I translated it, the feeling that I stated above was exactly what it evoked in my mind. As my life as a consultant goes, I have frequently recited it to myself as if it were a mantra.

यह करें वह और करें, ऐसा करें वैसा करें
ज़िंदगी दो दिन की है दो दिन में हम क्या क्या करें


For those who might care this sher is a matlaa. ग़ज़ल के पहले शेर को मतला कहते हैं। The structure of a ghazal must follow some rigid rules, one of which is that each properly written ghazal must begin with a matla. By definition, a matla is a sher that has radiif (रदीफ़) in both lines. So, what is radiif? Stand by for a future piece on the “taxonomy” of a ghazal in which all will be explained.

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A project manager has to rely on the accuracy of the status information that is passed to him. On the basis of this information, he or she then reports upward. Unfortunately, we have seen times when deadlines arrive and the stories change for the worst.

Today, because I thought they support each other, we have two shers that can be applied to such a situation. The first, by Bekhud Dehlvi, describes the sense of broken trust when what one is told turns out to be untrue. The second, by Krishan Bihari Noor, puts the concept of truth in perspective. In a project, facts are facts, and therein is the truth.

जादू है या तिलिस्म तुम्हारी ज़बान में
तुम झूठ कह रहे थे मुझे ऐतबार था

तिलिस्म = enchantment (This is an Arabic word from which the English word talisman comes. Versions of this sher on the Internet in transliterated form using Latin characters render the word as “tilasam”. The Urdu dictionary shows the correct pronunciation as तिलिस्म.)

ऐतबार = trust, confidence


सच घटे या बढ़े तो सच न रहे
झूठ की कोई इन्तिहा ही नहीं

इन्तिहा या इन्तेहा = limit, end (मेरे उर्दू लुग़त [शब्दकोश] के अनुसार इन्तिहा सही है ।)