Lead by examples?

The only thing about some advice people provide me and that which bothers me is the fact that they are hypocrites. They will seldom do what they advise others to do. Take the example of the parents who continuously make a fuss about the lying habits of their children. 'Don't tell lies'- was perhaps the first moral lesson everyone gets as a kid. It's hard to believe that at some point of time peole have not lied in their life. Even the legendary Yudhishtir lied anout Aswathhama during the battle of Mahabharat. People just would not admit that they are deep down hypocrites. The idea is to to do everything and not get caught. But what happened recently has shook my beliefs and has reinstated a belief that most people are hypocrites by mistake and not by choice, and such people try to lead by examples...

SD had been constantly sending out mails and reminders to people about their tendency to speak out in their native languages. Now, it is a common urge for everyone to speak out their dissatisfaction in the language they are adept in... for it is the language that can bring out the emotional state perfectly. Imagine you are frustrated because your bengali girlfriend would not let you hang up for a meeting where your appraisal is made and you have to explain calmly to her in English that you are in a meeting with the bosses looking at you.... It is just too difficult isn't it? SD has no qualms about speaking in Odiya and that too with almost half of the clients turnig round to see where the strange noise is coming from; nevertheless it is English that we all must speak in, even amongst us.

One fine day CL and SB were in a deep argument whether to start the mainframe job at 7:15 pm, after the database backup has been confirmed or to start it at the scheduled time of 7:00 pm and let the job keep trying to connect to the database every 5 minutes until it succeded when SD happened to pass by. CL and SB did not notice him at all but when he stopped briefly and turned around, I braced myself from a cubicle not far away, for yet another round of advice-giving from none other than SD.
I watched him sneak up to the duo and address them in Bengali "Banglay keno kotha bolcho? Tomader kotobaar kore bolechi tomra office-e Engrijitey kotha bolbe. Client bohubaar kore eta niye complain korechey. Tomader jeno aar Banglay kotha bolte na shuni".
Having said that to a very surprised looking CL and SB he turned round to proceed on his way. CL and SB looked at each other as if undecided what to do when I noticed SD stop on his tracks, turn around and head back for the duo.
"Dont speak in Bengali. How many times have I told you to speak in English. This has been escalated many a times by the client. I must not hear you speaking in Bengali again in Office"
Leading by examples I guess...

RT Vs Sivaji The Boss?

To me Rabindranath Tagore is The greatest poet to have lived my country and I believe this solemnly. I even get into fights over this with people who might say that perhaps Galib or Tulsidas or even Thiruvalluvar was a greater poet to have lived. I have no hard feelings for anyone with such beliefs and they might even be true in their own ways but somewhere inside I am a very stubborn Bengali who would stand up to anyone when it comes to defending the Bengali valour. Moreover, Rabindranath and his wealth of works are by no means matched by anyone. His complete works would take years to just copy word to word, let alone match them with some original work. The varied themes and the various emotions exhibited by the writings of this great poet knows no limit. Every human emotion has been penned down by this great poet.

So, when Appu Rao spoke with the most indifferent and incredulous voice and with an expression of complete mistrust and disbelief and a shade of disdain on his face -

'Who is this chap Rabindranath?',

I could not take it any more. I bounced back with all the vengeance I had, giving him the facts and figures about the hero, I almost look up as a superhuman supreme being.

In the flow of this heated discussion I even pointed out the fact that Rabindranath Tagore was and is the only nobel laureate in the field of literature from India that he reluctantly accepted the greatness of RT. He left with a deep frown and I heard no more from him in a few days.
Almost 3 weeks later Anna, as we used to call him, came up to me and declared with a finality:

'I was indeed mistaken... Rabindranath is a great hero of our country and we should all salute him...'

Failing to see the ways things are scheming up I decided to be a bit content with my admonitions about Anna's ignorance. It seemed that Anna had said some wonderful words to make my day. Soon a feeling of deep suspicion overcame the feeling as I was dismayed as to how Anna had been so gracious on Rabindranath Tagore. As if in a reflex action, which I regret later, I asked


'How come this change of Heart Anna? You seemed pretty confident that Rabindranath wasnt so great after all.'

'Arrey yesterday I saw Rajanikant praying before a picture of Rabindranath Tagore...'

I did not hear the rest and walked off.