Rise and Shine: And the Lion Smiled at the Rabbit

Aman Kanth

If unread, you might pass it as just another self-help book but Rashmi Datt’s ‘And the Lion Smiled at the Rabbit’ is not a chip off the old block. A clear, coherent and logical read, Wisdom Tree imprint ‘And the Lion Smiled at the Rabbit’ is targeted at young professionals, negotiating land mines of emotions in the workplace through Indian folklore – Panchtantra, which provides practical solution to everyday issues, where human shortcomings and base instincts are camouflaged as animal traits, often interspersed with real life instances and modern management theory. Given that the human brain is wired in such a way that the moment it perceives a psychological threat, its ability to reason just shuts down, ‘And the Lion Smiled at the Rabbit’ underlines the need of controlling sudden urges. If a reaction is born from uncontrolled impulse while a response is a thought out, wise, logical and measured reply to a situation, the book tries to demystify human behaviour. Controlling impulses is the lynch pin of the book, dwelling upon five components of emotional intelligence: Self-acceptance and self-belief, self motivation, building rapport and managing important relationships and handling conflicts and difficult situations, which are further divided into fourteen interesting and intriguing chapters. ‘And the Lion Smiled at the Rabbit’ intends at the overall development of working professional by stressing on self-regulation by maintaining internal balance, which calls for emotional intelligence, personal competence and social competence. If self-acceptance and self-belief come from accepting one’s own imperfections, challenging negative thoughts, projecting a confident self-image, self-motivation comes from receiving praise without losing one’s balance and taking negative feedback gracefully. Building rapport and managing relationships is an integral part of work ethics and it requires the art of winning people. At times, one needs to handle difficult conversations assertively and has to give an unbiased and unprejudiced feedback for positive results. When it comes to handing conflicts and difficult situations, one should come up with an indigenous style of conflict management, which requires mastering skills and strategies for conflict resolution and dealing with complex situations flexibly. ‘And the Lion Smiled at the Rabbit’ calls for striking inner balance when dealing with a situation. Not getting emotionally hijacked, challenging negativity, building rapport and handling conflicts will certainly help in getting even with your inner demons in professional world. And trust me, the book does not disappoint!