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Management Lessons from Childhood Activities-1


Film Show




A journey into my childhood has helped me to find the treasure of learning, a learning that can be used in the world of management. Those born in 1970s had no access to gadgets, probably the only gadget a typical Indian middle class had was a radio, in the mid of 70s came a TV, which was for the affordable class.

While reading this some of you might feel we were unfortunate or some of you might feel we were free from the clutches of mobiles, whatever you feel that’s your choice. But we had no other choice than going out of homes to play with our friends and neighbours.

There were many childhood activities which are closer to my heart, but in this article I would like to focus on a activity called –Film show.

Film show was one of my favourite activities which we used to do during our summer vacations due to the presence of hot sun. During those days I remember a common dialogue spoken by any Tamil mother

“Summer Leave vituachi edhaku apprama orrula errakuru veyil yellam endha pasanga meladhan, kaka madhiri suthuvanga (summer leave has been declared and the entire heat will be on these kids & they will roam like a crow)”

But today’s mother don’t use the above statement they tell “eppapathalam mobile la games veliydranga, veliya poi eduvadhu physical veliyda matringranga (Every time they keep playing with mobile, they don’t engage in any outdoor activities)

Times would have changed but the mother’s love and care remains the same in any generation.

Coming back to the film show now let’s understand what we mean by this, is it an electronic projector, is it a slide shower or a motor operated projector.

It is none of the above it was purely a homemade projector using collection of few things we used in our day to day life along with few materials which we need to buy it from the shops.

Let me introduce you to the things which we used to make our own projector


A shoe box which was used to stock some materials like shoe polish, brush, socks etc.

We used to make two holes in the box, one in front to place a lens and in the rear we make hole to divert the sun light and ensure it falls on the lens.






A hand mirror which was used for shaving and makeup

We used to place the mirror in the outdoor to capture the sun light and direct it towards the shoe box









A lens was used mainly as a toy, in some houses they were used to read hand written documents

We used to remove the lens from the rim and place it on the hole which is in front of the shoe box





Film bits that was discarded after editing was sold in petty shops at 25 Piece for 5 pieces, we used to buy Rajinikanth, Kamal Hassan and other actors films.

This was placed behind the lens in the shoe box for projection.




 A white cloth, which can either be Dhoti or a bedsheet
This was used as a projection screen





Sunlight was used as a source of light for projection







Let’s understand the process we followed to project an image on the screen
Step-1- A mirror is placed outdoors to capture the sunlight and the same is beamed to indoors through a window.

Step-2- The captured light is diverted into the shoe box and the light beam falls on the film and same hits the lens.

Step-3- once the mirror, film and the lens are well synchronized it zooms into an image which is projected on the white cloth.

These were static images without sound. The joy was in ensuring the sunlight is captured perfectly to see the image from a small film version to a large screen version.

The final output might look like this





    









   The Crew Members and lessons we can learn from each member
Mirror operator: Places the mirror outdoors to capture the sunray and beams in into the shoe box and co-ordinates with the person indoors who operates the projector.


Lessons
·         The mirror operator senses the sunlight and starts adjusting the mirror similarly we should sense the changing environment and adjust our internal mirror to achieve a goal.

·         The mirror operator does not do it alone, he/she works with operator inside and understands his/her needs and works, similarly we don’t work alone we might work for an organisation or we might be running an organisation hence we should learn to develop skills and knowledge required based on the organisation needs.

·         Mirror operator might become tired because of being exposed hot sun; he/she seeks rest or would like to play the others a role which is indoors.


·         Similarly in life, we will also burnout, let’s learn to take a break or play a different role to beat the monotony with in.

Operator: is the person who works along with the mirror operator, places the film in box and tunes the lens to project the image.

Lessons
·         The operator checks the light which beams and adjusts the box position to ensure the light falls on the film. Similarly in life we need to keep seeing the outside world and evaluate our own self to check whether our skills and knowledge is in line with what is required outside.

·         The operator does not do it alone, he/she works with mirror operator outside and understands his/her position, similarly we don’t work alone, we work for our customers and hence we understand their needs and bring changes within.

·         The operator also needs to co-ordinate with the screen holders and communicate how to hold it and keep alerting them about the shrinks in the cloth, screen holders are our internal customers who should be told  to be alert and stick to their roles so that the organisation gets the right growth & projection

·         Operator might become tired because of adjusting the lens and the film to achieve optimum projection, hence he/she might opt to play the role of a mirror operator, similarly in life we should look for job rotation at one end and learn to acquire an additional skill set to ensure, we enjoy our work.

Screen holder: In some places we cannot tie the white cloth and hence there will be 2 persons who will hold the white cloth for projection.
Lessons
·         The job might look monotonous but it plays a vital role in achieving the end result similarly certain jobs might look monotonous but it plays a key role in the organisation.

·         Screen holders sees the audience reaction, operator and mirror operator functions, hence they are able understand the audience reaction and learn the function of both mirror operator and operator.

Similarly some functions in the work place works both with the external customers and internal customers, hence their exposure will be good and can quickly adopt in the other role.

There will few be audiences who will be there to cheer-up and enjoy those static films.

These audiences can be kids of lesser age, they don’t only act as audience they assist all the functions and keep giving feedback about the quality of the projection and they wholeheartedly clap when they see a clear image.
Lessons

These audience are none other than our second line, when we share our knowledge with others, we are not only reducing our burden we are also developing the second line.

When I played this game as a kid, all I wanted is to achieve a clear projection. In simple words determination to prove that I can also show a film and entertain my friends.

Now when I look back I question myself do I have the same determination to project what I am and what I want?

Let’s connect with our childhood activities to unleash the qualities that are hidden within us.

Written by
M.L.Narendra Kumar 

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