'I' for Integrity

The recent incident of an ATM money transport vehicle driver fleeing alongwith the van containing the moolah, is just another example of a man’s character gone awry. Simply speaking he lacked integrity. Surely, the man might have been recruited after ascertaining his honesty and good character. But he didn’t have the strength of character to not lose self-control and give in to temptation and make the most of the opportunity, however wrong he was in doing so.

Yet, how often are character, conduct and soft skills considered as important as, if not more than, the core competencies required of a candidate for a job? For, we have ample examples of high level executives making away with information and documents at their disposal, without anyone suspecting them.

A manager in a corporate came to his senior and confessed something serious that happened the earlier evening – his toddler had (playfully) spilled water into his laptop. That his reporting manager took him to task would be an understatement because the junior got a huge mouthful about being careless about the company asset, and a bitter reprimand to be more careful next time (as though he asked his child to spill water).  Months later, the same Executive, the senior, lost his laptop because of sheer carelessness – he left his car window open when he entered a retail shop near home. Coming back, he saw that the gadget had been flicked by someone. An FIR was filed with the Police but it is anyone’s guess that the laptop could not be found. The incident smacked of a casual attitude which acted against the interests of the Company, as the laptop apart from being pricy itself, contained several confidential documents privy only to the Executive, but the Executive didn’t bother to make good the loss; instead he got a new laptop sooner than expected. A case of integrity taking a backseat.

Integrity as a value has to be introduced to a child soon as it learns to grasp and draw things to itself. When a child takes something from another while playing, it is for the parent or guardian to say that it is wrong and take it back, unless the other is willing to part with it. Here the cost of the goods or item is not as important as the fact that is taken away without the owner’s knowledge or agreement. Going further, the child may get toys, pencils and such stuff from classmates or others in the crèche or class, and again it is for the near adults to take corrective action. This and this alone, will drive the lesson of integrity – of not taking or keeping or using for ourselves wrongly, what is not ours – into the mind of the growing child.

Even as we are progressing into a tech-savvy civilisation where parents feel incomplete if their wards are not into a plethora of classes to learn a variety of things however irrelevant they may be to the current lifestyle, they seldom spend even a fraction of the same time to speak about the importance of living justly. Worse, most don’t even think it is important to do so, with the result that the children grow up believing that values and principles are best left to moral books and can be twisted to suit their convenience.

During a recent celebration of a national event in an apartment complex, a boy was given a cash award for scoring the highest in that colony. Soon it turned out that the convenor had missed out a girl who had scored higher than the boy, with the result that she became the highest scorer. To tackle the sticky situation, the association decided to award the girl also with the same cash prize, without taking back what was given to the boy. Surprisingly, neither the parents of the boy nor the boy himself paid up the prize money that he was not eligible for in the first place. It was a wonderful opportunity for the parents to impart the meaning of integrity to their son, but sadly they let it go. 

I for Integrity –

Children going to undesirable lengths and adopting unfair means to get good marks, buying attendance, employees being absent to office but not availing leave, fake medical claims, tax evasion with false receipts – all are just a few examples of integrity forgotten for good.

It is here that each one of us has a role to play – I have to wear integrity on my sleeve in my day to day interactions, be it amongst family members, in the neighbourhood, at the workplace or in a bigger forum – I have to practice integrity in whatever I do, each day.

Only when I take integrity as my responsibility, I can influence others to follow suit. The righteous parent can be an example for his children, the teacher to her students, the boss to his team, the head of the Company to her employees and the Head of the State to his countrymen, because actions do speak louder than words.

The motto therefore is, I for Integrity, every time and everywhere.

Deepa Dumblekar

Published in Daijiworld Online - 10th December 2016

A re-look at RELOCATION

Change is the only constant in life is what I had often heard. Having worked for more than two decades in Britannia, I had witnessed several changes of various kinds. Yet, I, like many others, was not ready to accept the fact that we were going to relocate soon to a newer swankier office in a remote part of the city.

We did many things to cherish the memory of having worked in Britannia Gardens, including a couple of potluck lunches, a photograph of seniors who had worked there from as early as 1989 (when Britannia set up office in Bangalore), and individual photo sessions at various spots which we liked. A Look and See visit to the new office, not only helped us to get familiar with the new location but set us thinking of options to reach the new destination. I had always envied those who commuted to office in AC Volvo buses and now that that would be my only recourse, I started looking forward to going to office sitting by a huge window inside an air-conditioned bus, listening to the latest songs played on the local FM radio by the bus driver. A few others confirmed the trains that would bring them to the new location. All this warmed us to the idea of relocation, to a large extent.

Before we knew it, on 9^th February, we started working from our new office. All of a sudden, the Outer Ring Road that my buses took to and from office daily, earlier the proverbial ‘road less travelled’ now became my regular route.

Fast forward to the current time. Five months after relocation, I believe the relocation has transformed me and others around me. Firstly, a quick walk to the nearest bus stop has become an unavoidable daily morning ritual for me, while a couple of my team members have taken to cycling to office. The long commute allows me to catch up on pending phone calls, jot down thoughts for my articles and poems, list To-Do’s for home and office, and even catch up on sleep. Having only seen high-rise buildings earlier, working on 17^th floor is something that still excites me, and at times, looking far into the horizons through the large glass windows around the break-out areas, relieves me of any workplace stress. The open office structure with most of us seated in cubicles, now allows employees to know each other by face rather than only by an email name or a Sametime Contact. Earlier colleagues have turned friends.

In short, all is well. All that was required of me was to RE-LOOK-AT my circumstances – or RELOCATE my thoughts.

Published in BYTES June 2015 and in LinkedIn on 13th August 2015

Rising above rejection

The two of us – myself and my colleague Leah – were waiting at the bus stop for our respective buses. Minutes passed and the number of people gathered increased but not a bus was in sight. Soon a bus came and stopped in front of us. Quick to recognise it, I pointed out to Leah that her bus had ultimately come and she could go home before me.

Leah wondered if the bus in front of her was actually for her, as she was so used to the standard red colour bus, while this one was painted bright blue. So stuck she was to her belief that only red bus would serve her purpose, that Leah was not interested to even check whether the bus in front would help her  – something that intrigued me and got me thinking.

How often do we ‘see’ people and decide they are not good enough for us or to be connected with, just because they don’t look the way we think they should or behave like most of us? We find it so comforting to deal with the sameness and routine of life that something or someone slightly different from us unsettles us.

I still cannot forget how my classmates sidelined me as I belonged to a sub-sect, albeit the same community speaking the same language. I would not be taken into group games and taunts would be thrown at me in the absence of the teachers, whereas the teachers saw what I was made of and unanimously selected me to be the school pupil leader for that year.

An otherwise well-settled single woman shared how usually friendly women of her neighbourhood suddenly huddled together during festival times excluding her, for she did not have a husband. The girl she adopted gets ignored at gatherings, her cousins not considering her worth talking to or going out with, at times.

The mother and daughter duo seem to be on a never-ending journey, using their time to learn interesting things, involving themselves in worthy pursuits, empathising with others in the same boat, all of which has helped them to discover hidden strengths within themselves. Consequently, they have grown resourceful to many people around them.

Intolerance and rejection are two sides of the same coin, I believe, that has been going around in our society over ages. The former gives rise to the latter and most often it is unfair to the one at the receiving end, however justified it seems to the doer.

Rejection cannot be wished away, so the antidote to this malady is to develop our coping skills, in the sense learn to wear slippers instead of expecting the world to be carpeted. Maybe a good sense of humour is required to realise that the perpetrators are not worth bothering about and the time spent to tackle them is better invested elsewhere.

Rising above rejection takes us to a new lofty level just as an ugly caterpillar transforming into an attractive butterfly or a lotus blooming out of dirt becomes a cynosure to all around.

Published in Deccan Herald, dated Saturday 5th March 2016