Saturday 27 July 2013

Time Management in Valmiki Ramayana

The scene from Ramayana:


After Rama killed Vali, he makes Sugriva the king of Kishkinda and tells him to rest and relax
for the next two months of rainy season and after that help him in finding Sita. Sugriva gets
intoxicated with alcoholic drinks and pleasures of flesh that he forgets his promise to Rama.
After stern reminder by Hanuman, Sugriva sends messengers with orders to assemble the
monkey army in Kishkinda.

Meanwhile Rama sends his brother Lakshmana to warn Sugriva with a clear message that the
doors through which Vali was sent to netherworld are not yet closed. Hearing this, Sugriva
comes to Rama and apologizes for the delay. By then the monkey army arrives and Sugriva was
saved from Rama’s wrath. He divides the army into four squads and orders them to go in search
of Sita in all four directions of Earth setting a deadline of one month.

The squad that goes in the southern direction comes back only after four months but brings the
report on whereabouts of Sita. Hanuman brings the message from Sita that she will not bear to
live more than a month in the sickening situation she is in. The very same day Rama marches to
Lanka with the monkey army.

How the scene maps to the process:

Rama changes the schedule baseline three times in this project of rescuing Sita.
First time he postpones the activity “Send squads in search of Sita” by two months knowing
that not much can be achieved in rainy season. It will sap the energy of the monkey army to
carry the search in rain and it may kill their motivation to fight Ravana’s army later.


When Sugriva delays the search due to negligence and distraction, Rama reprimands the
monkey king, but still forgives him because he has marshaled the army. The baseline is now
moved to middle of fall season.


The monkeys returned only in spring season, but since they had valid reasons for the delay and
also they were successful in their mission, Rama admitted the delay.


But he marches towards Lanka and rescues Sita within the one month deadline that she set for
her rescue. Thus he shows that changes to schedule should be managed with appropriate
control on the dependencies.

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