We start with a story, a story of the tasty Japanese fish species. Normally Japanese people prefer fish that is freshly harvested from the sea. ‘It tastes far better than what one gets from the fish market!’- they say. However, the availability of good quality fresh fish near the seashore is poor; so, they started sending trawlers to the deep sea. That posed another problem- the fish would hardly remain fresh, till it reached the shores. So, they started storing it in ice boxes. But dead fish even from the ice boxes, would ‘look’ fresh; but would not taste as nice! So, they got another idea! They put huge fish tanks on the fishing boats; and maintained they fish live until the trawlers reached the shores. The fish would be fed with nice fish food and merrily swim in the tank; or often lazily roam in the waters. To the surprise of the fishermen, these fish, while live, would not pass the pallet of the choosy Japanese connoisseur! Then some wise man suggested that fish would be ‘live’ if it is ‘active, lively, agile and full of energy!’ So, we should add a few sharks to the fish tanks, so that the smaller fish are forced to be ‘on their toes’; worried that the shark would eat them; and this constant fear of sharks makes them agile, lively and super active; and that brought the taste back! In short, to make the fish folk lively and competent, taking on the challenge of sharks was a necessity!

The observation is not limited to fish, but it appears to occupy every species!

Indian mythology is full of warrior kings - we had King Aja, and then King Dasharatha, then Rama & Laxman with the prowess to take on the mighty rakshasa king Ravana; and then Kings Luv-Kush, who ruled the kingdom of Ayodhya and nearby! And who were the kings after Luv and Kush? Don’t you remember? Never registered the name in your mind? Someone who remained a non-entity? An unimpressive, lacklustre local king? What happened to the mighty prowess of their grandfather Rama? Didn’t that valour percolate down two generations?

The issue of poor inheritance of prowess of one generation appears to continue as a rule, not as an exception!

And in Maharashtra, in Central India, we had Shahaji, and then Shivaji Maharaj- the fighter king who tactfully combated the mighty Moguls from Delhi, and established the Maratha rule, covering most of Southern & western India! And then Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, the mighty, daring challenger! And then? What followed was little valour, little wisdom, little fighting ability. So much so, that the in the third generation, the ruler Bhosales had to unceremoniously hand over the reigns to the upcoming ‘Peshavas’- who, with their unique combination of wisdom and acquired valour, grew the Maratha kingdom, from South India to Delhi up north! And the Peshavas too had a similar fate-with Balaji Vishwanath, and then Bajirao at the peak of the Peshva dynasty; and then nana-saheb, Madhavrao- the talented Peshava though with a little demonstrated fighting ability; and then … little to talk about Peshavas, finally ending in the fourth generation with Bajirao-II! We see the same trend even among the mogul kings! - staring with Babur and Humayun, then Badshah Akabarthe great; and then a slow downhill journey with Jahangir-Shahjahan-and then little-known badshahas whose names are not worth registering in our minds!

It appears that the great powers of the ancestors cannot survive beyond three generations, fourth-generation survival being an exception! And the trend is not limited to the kings and state rulers only. It appears to be all-pervading! It is observed in political families; in family-owned industries; in Bollywood gharanas - The very successful Bollywood actor-Sunil Dutt’s son Sanjay Dutt does not appear to reach the heights his father conquered; and Sanjay’s next-gen does not even have the place in Bollywood! Actors and actresses! Shobhana Samarth of yesteryears was a good actress; her daughters Nootan and Tanuja – were better; and their nextgen- are not remembered by their names, albeit with some exceptions! Poet Harivanshrai Bachchan, actor Amitabh Bachchan and his talented son Abhishek have the same story. Even among professionals- be it famous doctors and surgeons; or corporate leaders, we see the third generation hardly displays the capability. The fluency and charm of Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, humble Rajeev and Sanjay Gandhi; and their nextgen- Rahul & Priyanka! And whether one accepts it or not the same trend is seen among prominent political guaranas in Maharashtra, with the first-gen rising through self-learnt journalism, and clear political and social views, the second generation rising high with clarity of purpose, thought and exemplary leadership qualities, and then, whether one accepts it or not, the journey downhill! It appears that the ‘third generation problem’ for real!

And what are the characteristics of these generations? The first generation often comes from common, humble origins. With eyes clear open, they observe; they do not have all the wherewithal to shake out their boundaries! They are aware of the need; but also, must survive the pressures of common life! Still, they initiate the thought process; which is in the formative; laden with successes and failures. Their second generation faces and observes the effects of these limitations; develops their keen sense of independence; of the need to make a change; seek support; seek like-minded friends; learns to fight out; and develop their physical and mental muscles to fight out! Establish their credibility! The third generation gets some good life ready on a platter. They have not observed the ‘process’ or have seen it partly only. So, they take things for granted. They do not have to fight things out as much as gen1 or gen2. They also get protected! And soon become paper tigers- with the innate feeling that I am a tiger; but have less prowess of a tiger. This tiger has the meals served to him or her! And hence forget the skills to win their meals! By the fourth generation, the fight is finished! And by that time, someone else’s first generation is already budding!

The characteristics of people over generations appear to follow a typical trend as shown below Pre-first gen. first gen. second gen. Third-gen/Fourth-gen. It may be observed that such trends are characteristic of societies which have a strong ‘personal’ or ‘individual-led’ culture, as against those which are more evolved. Thus, so-called developed nations or societies do not show such behaviour as widely across various strata of the societies, while less developed nations or societies like the oriental or eastern world do show this to be more prevalent.

Why does such a problem occur? Charles Darwin proposed over two centuries back, that all living matter has the unique ability to respond to stimuli, by acting an internal change! Thus, a plant subjected to an arid atmosphere develops an ability to survive with less water; bacteria, faced with high temperature inside the mouth of a live volcano, gradually develop thermophilicity; children from destitute families lacking resources develop a stronger internal urge to survive by getting educated. It appears that it is the rule of Mother Nature that unless there is a challenge faced, the abilities are called for, stretched and sharpened, these abilities tend to disappear, as a rule of evolution! They are not necessarily inherited or inheritable! It is thus necessary for fish to face a shark, to retain their vitality!

Are there examples where deliberate attempts have been made to create a challenging situation for the next generation and prepare them for sharpening their ability? The best example is seen in the corporate management world. In Unilever, the FMCG multinational, for example, the select few management trainees are deliberately put into challenging assignments, albeit under the guidance of mentors, so that they learn to handle difficult situations. For example, a good young HR candidate, who has apparently lived a cosy family life, is made to participate in a team that is handling workers’ strikes! A manufacturing manager is seconded to a team that is operating under serious time pressure to deliver so that he/she learns ways of operating under pressure. In Indian bureaucracy, good candidates in the administrative service are posted in a district handling unrest of tribals or a difficult political issue, so that he/she learns to own and resolve such issues. Take the example of Ratan Tata. He had almost inherited the right to head a Tata Group company, on his return from the US. His seniors however put him to handle the difficult company, Nelco - with a host of challenges- a sick, non-profit, labour-laden company, based in Mumbai, with products challenged by many new gen entrants, like Western, Videocon, BPL, Onida, with boughtout Japanese technology, and an inbuilt fighting spirit! And that bottoms-up experience gained by Ratan Tata is cherished by Ratan Tata to date, as the foundation of his business sense, as that experience transformed him from being just a rich, young, trained architect to a business leader of world repute. Facing challenges is an important element in building the foundations of one’s personality! Facing sharks and developing abilities to survive sharks is important.

There are two ways of combating the challenger - situation/being/ system/ molecule. The first way is to try to control the challenger by e]ecting changes in the challenger and the second way is to combat the challenger by making changes in your own self. The former is generally adopted by humans, and the latter by Nature. Let me explain the latter.

Mother Nature makes sure that the organism develops innate abilities to make the necessary changes in themselves to enable overcoming the challenger. Technically, as DrFrancis Arnold invented, (and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2015) this is done by Nature synthesizing proteins which can take appropriate shape, size, chemistry and electric charges to combat the challenger. Bacteria evolving to battle antibiotics, green-coloured butter-fly larvae that camouflage themselves among the matching-coloured leaves, of the mother plant, that the larvae can merrily eat without getting identified, stick-shaped and coloured stick insect (Phasmatidae), up to 500 mm long, remain hidden on dry wood, and so many other features of life have evolved by this technique only, and survived.

We conclude that the third-generation problem is real and apparently unavoidable in the normal course of practice. We also conclude that Mother Nature has shown a way to adopt a strategy of self-correction so as to maintain, in fact, improve, the performance with generations. A discipline and a practice to make this strategy workable, without causing hurt, has to be developed. And that will be the subject of my next article for ‘People’s Reflections’.

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