While many senior executives continue to talk about the "voice of the customer," few demonstrate their commitment to this concept by spending time with customers. Many continue to use their intuition or `golden gut' in their attempt to provide superior customer value. Unfortunately, `senior executive intuition' is rarely attuned to the needs of their customers. While the competitive environment continues to intensify, executives have cut back on the time devoted to customers just when it should be increasing. This article discusses the need for senior executives to spend time with customers and provides examples of the benefits that this approach will provide.

Once upon a time, poetry was the central force to Indians, formulating their attitude to the myriad forms of life around them and the universe. It prospered through times of oral poetry to the period when `word' acquired `print' to its old `sound' structure. However, in recent times, the old Indian tradition of poetry, as a force defining the Indian face, has been replaced by its sad spectacle of its reification and denunciation by the readers. Regrettably, this attitude is evident not only in the general reading public but also in the student community who study English poetry formally as a process of academic growth. Poetry forms an integral part of every educational Board or University. Despite this exposure, they do not respond positively to the form. What could be the reasons for this attitudinal swerve? Is teaching the culprit? What is the approach, method and technique adopted by the teachers to teach English poetry to the students? What can be done to improve the situation? In order to arrive at reliable conclusions, the paper draws on the research data collected from both the students and the teachers. In this paper, an attempt is made to study the teaching scene prevalent in the Indian classroom of English poetry at the graduate level with a view to introduce fresh optimism in teaching and responding to poetry as a literary form. Muse will thus be hopefully freed from the manacles restricting its growth in the classroom and playing its rightful role in humanizing humanity.

Indians’ love for music is comparable only to their passion for cricket1—‘the mark of India’. I f Lagaan loses the Oscars, many blame the westerner’s inability to appreciate songs and music in the Indian cinema; so intense is their love for music. ‘Poetry’ which is so inextricably woven with music is naturally expected to enjoy an enviable place in the Indian classroom. But India is a land of surprises. Robert Hamburger described its ‘enigma’ through the advice given by Mankekar to his writer friend. He says: “If a writer visits India for two or three weeks, he writes a book. If he spends a few months here, he writes an article. If he lives here for a year, he writes nothing.”2 The writer agrees with this and concludes that “India is overwhelming.” India is certainly ‘overwhelming’, defying logic and is symbolized in Forster’s “Baum”4. It challenges our logic to see that the same set of people who relish a lilting music are unable to appreciate poetry. On the contrary, they are resentful of it being included in the syllabus, and find it difficult to comprehend even as an easy poem. It reminds of a savage African practice3, where the singers were invited to perform. They were offered wealth and honor for entertaining them but were later buried upside down in a hollow tree! This was a symbolic act to show that honor comes compounded with contempt. This may surprise us, but it is equally true that in our own land similar treatment is meted out to ‘poetry’.

Muse in Manacles : English Poetry in the Indian Classroom, Pushpa Vrinda Baxi, Indian tradition, educational Board or University, Indian cinema, westerner’s inability, reliable conclusions, academic growth, enigma.