Republic Day

Today we had a Republic Day event in our residential complex. I had taken a printout of the national pledge in Hindi (when in school we said the pledge out loud everyday, so it is still in my head after about 35+ years of leaving school). 

I asked some of the older teenagers if one of them would read it out loud for all to follow. Each one said "Oh no - not I".  Fighting shy of doing this is bad enough. But I was really shocked when one of them - a Hindi speaking boy (the family speaks Hindi at home) said "I cannot read the pledge in Hindi".

What goes wrong with our systems? Why are we not able to put in some feeling of pride in youngsters when it comes to doing something on these patriotic occasions. Have we gone wrong somewhere? When in school, it was a matter of pride if we were chosen to sing a patriotic song or read out a pledge / speech.

Finally one of the teens volunteered and did a good job. They have it in them. But.... something goes wrong. And we need to find out and tackle it

More about responsibilitiy

A few days back I had the privilege of attending an event. The former Chief Librarian and HOD of the dept of Lib Sc of Mumbai University turned 75, and the dept had a small function to celebrate it. The gentleman said one thing which was simple and yet profound. He said "When I was the Head, I looked at my chair as a seat of responsibility and accountability and not as a seat of power". Very true - in two ways. Every chair is exactly that. And "Sir" (as we obviously called him) did exactly what he'd just said. What he achieved / did not was not the question. He NEVER flouted authority. He was available to everyone - including the young students (within reasonable limits), but I never remember it being a struggle meeting him.

There is a paradox here. My spiritual teacher says "Responsibility = Power". The more you take up, the more powerful you get. Seems like the opposite of what I said? No. The "Power" you get with more responsibility you take, comes from within. People see you as someone powerful. Whereas, if one "assumes" power comes with a seat, then one is "depending" on the seat for the power. Take away the seat and one loses power.

When one takes up more responsibilites, the power simply follows - one does not need to seek it.

I suddenly need to fly a lot. And with each flight I get more and more aware that many passengers seem to love to flout rules. Major ones - unbuckling seat belts and switching on mobiles AS SOON AS the plane wheels kiss the runway.
Are seat belts so uncomfortable? Will the few minutes to reach the bay make a difference? Is the world waiting to call you? If you dont call home/office for another 5 mins will either of those world collapse?

The same passengers would look at each other if there were even some mild turbulence in the air. Why is there such defiance on landing?

Or is listening to authority a big ego issue?

Or have we had so much of it in school / college that we NEED to defy them?

Thoughts???

Today my husband and I went for a condolence visit. The gentleman we visited is a bachelor who has slogged and sacrificed for his siblings all his life. He lost two older sisters in a span of a month. They had all lost their dad at a young age and this (youngest) brother has been a solid contributor to the family - battling all kinds of odds - minimal education etc.

He recently bought a new flat keeping in mind his sister who was living with him- he chose a building next to a temple so that she would love it and be happy. Unfortunately she did not live to move in there

The important thing was......when this sister was ill for a month, he had people (neighbours and friends and employer) pitching in and helping him a lot. More importantly a cab driver understanding his plight ferried him and the sister for long distances for her specialized hospital visits at minimal charges. I wonder what makes people like cab drivers do such things for people they hardly know. It really increasingly makes me reaffirm my belief in humans - that actually all are basically good, those who do not appear to be so - are different because of various circumstances. And - ideological as it may seem - I do believe that if you are good and have a strong integrity base - you do attract good people to you.

Responsibility. As I grow older, I realize the tremendous :"responsibility" that goes with the word! So often I find that people in positions of responsibility seem to avoid taking it, at moments of reckoning. I recently had someone who promised to pay me "in advance" for some work I did. I charge different rates for those who pay in advance, and those who pay on delivery. Since there were big volumes involved, I agreed to lower rates a little further. He reqeusted that I start processing work, while he processed payments. And fully trusting this soul, did everything and delivered stuff (there was a major urgency factor involved in this client's need)

Then comes the moment of reckoning. He sheepishly says that his company's accounts dept says that the normal processing time is 30 days! I let hell break loose. Till he brought in "a senior", who intervened and God bless him - paid me in two days. The senior reqeusted for a meeting, and we listened to each other, and have arrived at certain commitments for the future.

I could not resist asking the original requestor - "You have been in the company long enough to know policies - how could you promise to pay in advance"? His answer "but in our discussion, we had actually agreed that I could pay later"!!!!!!! AND "I did not know about our payment methods".

I also told him that if anyone from my organization had stayed with me long enough and did not know some fundamental policies, I would have sacked him/her. Also - that it was fine to make mistakes, but trying to evade responsibility for mistakes was UNACCEPTABLE

The senior once again intervened and accepted responsibility on behalf of the original person in question. Hats off to him. It was his intervention (in spite of being new to the company), his accepting responsibility on behalf of his company for a blunder committed by the next level person (who had been in the organization long enough) that made me agree to discuss doing further business in future

When I was a kid, it was "the doctor" who took care of the family's health. We'd not heard of specialists like neurologists, cardiologists and definitely not the paramedicsl like dieticians and physiotherapists. I am not ancient, and I am sure such specialists were around already, but were summoned only for "serious cases". As for paramedics, I really am not sure.

In today's world, there is the joke about specialization going to the extent of the existence of a right ear specialist and a left ear specialist, and so on. But the fact is that specialization is here to stay - not just in the medical profession, but in the world of paramedics too. Doctors put patients on to dieticians and different breeds of therapists, and take their advice too.

I see another brand of paramedics - Medical Librarians. There is already a more "correct name" - Clinical Librarians. This newly emerging breed of professionals is specialised in finding the proverbial needle in a haystack - the "best, filtered information from the ocean of what is out there" . While these angels are doing a great job in some parts of the US / UK and Australia, there is still the rest of the world where medical librarianship has a long way to go.

And it is up to the tribe to make doctors and the others sit up and notice them. Push your skills, and plan to reach a status of an independent consultant in your own right!