Winters have set in and the winds make it worst. I am advised to be fully covered. Head to toe, as they say. Discretion is better than chivalry. And so I keep myself protected against the wintry winds of London. ‘Even the palms should be covered’, reprimanded my sister. ‘Yes’, I agree ‘otherwise the fingers may get numbed’. Thus I bought a pair of gloves from one of the superstores. A giant store that has everything an ordinary person needs in their ordinary lives. 

Wearing gloves is little uneasy for me. I had never worn any. Coming from a tropical country my closest encounter with freezing winters had been during my school days. Being surrounded by hills the winters were very chilly in that town.  And to make matters worst we used to get up early in the morning for a PT drill. But strict school rules never allowed us to wear gloves.

Now I am in London and that too during the winters. Everywhere I go I see people wearing gloves. In tube or in the pier or while taking a walk along the riverside I see people with gloves. Some gloves are colourful and some single-colour. Some are for the fingers and some not for the fingers. Some are just gloves while others extension of the pullover one is wearing.

As a kid I use to think that the only time someone wears gloves is while doing something wrong or dirty. Gloves gave them the convenience of keeping their hands ‘clean’. The murder mysteries added an extra layer of mysticism to the act of wearing gloves. Every crime scene in the movie exaggerated the act of wearing and removing gloves. 

While leaving for office in the morning I wear gloves. It seems surreal as if I am acting in a movie. Reassuring myself that I need to give a best shot I stylishly wear my gloves in front of the mirror like a Bond movie hero. It is only to realise later that I have to remove them to lock the door.  

 

For the uninitiated Satyam is one of the leading IT Company in India. It employees close to 50,000 people and has her operations across the globe. What makes things interesting is the fact that yesterday on 7th Jan the chairman Ramalinga Raju confessed of a scam to the tune of 500 Million Crores to his employees and offered his resignation. India has seen frauds and scams before. Difference this time is the company and the person involved. Satyam was a respected organisation and Mr. Raju an institution of success in modern IT India.

Raju had an idea of creating a world class organisation. In the mad rush to make his dream come true, too soon, he blotted the financial results. He had to project a strong image of his company to the outside world to make it grow bigger. So quarter after quarter he added fictitious figures to his profits. Then one day it grew out of proportion and like a pack of cards the house of Satyam fall apart.

Like Raju we all intend to hide things. Sit quiet and blind to things we should have objected in the first place. I don't believe in tell-all policy. Sometimes timing and quantity of information is important. For example it is probably okay to hide information of injured son from the hospitalised father. Or may be hide news of a still born in the neighbourhood from a soon-to-be-in-labour mother.

Satyam saga does not mean hiding tit-bit of information. Satyam saga means not acting with total responsibility. Raju's love for Satyam can not be questioned. He was one of the founders and like his baby had nurtured the Satyam dream. In this journey there came along lot of customers, partners, employs and shareholders. Raju’s love for Satyam lacked 'responsibility'. Responsibility towards his customers who loved Satyam for her services, partners who loved Satyam for her strength, employees who loved Satyam for her working environment and shareholders who loved Satyam as an asset.

Love is the most over rated expression. I don’t understand what people mean when they say that they are in true love. For me love means trust, respect, peace and responsibility.

Trust: integrity and faith in the person/thing you love.
Respect: for the person/ thing you love.
Peace: within the inner self for being in love.
Responsibility: towards person/things you have been in love for ever even if you have been in love once.

Raju loved Satyam but did not have a sense of responsibility towards others who also loved Satyam like customer, employees and partners.

If someone shows love without any of the above expressions believe me you don’t get fooled. It is better not to be in love then to be fooled in love.

No time in the history have the words “yes we can” been said, written or thought as they have been in the last couple of months. I wonder is it just said because we fancy saying it or there is some meaning to it. Let’s pause for a minute and analyse what the phrase ‘actually’ means.

Yes – is a word that stands for hope, clarity and confidence. I bet you cannot say ‘yes’ without the ray of hope, without the clarity of speech and without the confidence in self.

We – stand for collectiveness. We is a collection of Is. It stands for collective intellectual, strength and dream. In no way it means shunning responsibility or passing the buck.

Can – means ability to deliver. The ability accompanied with a sense of certainty and not just wishful thinking.

So to summarise, ‘yes we can’ to me means, ‘with hope, clarity and confidence, with collective intellectual, strength and dream I will deliver’.

Words have meaning when they can be used in sentences that become examples. Examples that are real, examples that give hope to those who have been deprived of any. ‘Yes we can’ will have meaning for me only when I can create an example; an example where I use this phrase in letter and spirit.

I am a man of hope and optimism. I have always denied myself the luxury of being in so-called ‘comfort zone’. I have taken path less travelled by many around me. I write this because I need to. I need to remind myself that I had broken away from stereotype once. And I need to do it again.

It is on the cross-road where I stand. One road is comfortable and clear while the other is foggy. The mundane world looks attractive. I know the rules and also I can take liberty in breaking some. The foggy road is uncertain and frightening. I am not sure what is there on that road just a mile ahead. But then I will never know until I walk that road. With audacity of hope I have chosen my path.

I will come back to this blog to reflect on my decision. The decision I have take on the day when the US and the rest of the world welcomes a new president. President who gifted the world hope in his words, “Yes we can”.

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Email me your comments at vickyagarwal.blog@googlemail.com