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December 02, 2005
Your life is worth only 1 minute of silence or sometimes not even that – part 1!
My friend/client from Bangalore working for Mindtree Consulting called me yesterday evening. He was a bit panicky over the phone. He said he spoke to Mr Anil, 36, and found that both his kidney had failed recently, and his father donated a kidney to him. He is on bed rest. No work till February 2006 - suggested the docs it seems. And according to my friend, the best results of kidney transplant can make the patient survive only for 5-6 years.
By the way who is Mr Anil?
It was in the year 1997 - when I was literally begging for jobs in Mumbai carrying my resumes to all the newspaper organizations, magazines, and TV channels. I remained jobless & happy for 2 months, till I got a call to attend a test in Indian Express. Anil was the one who interviewed me and offered me my first steady job at Indian Express Online Media. The interview was cool, and he was the first person to respect my qualification and potential. I am still grateful to him to have helped me structure my career in the Dot Com industry, which still gives me my daily bread.
Anil would come to office at 8 am, and leave only at 8 pm. A sure shot workaholic I should say. Before joining the Express, he was with Financial Express for 5 long years, and after Express he was with India.com and UNI. I am sure these organizations would not even remember that he still exists and that he used to work for 12 hours to help them bring revenues. Of course he was paid, but only for 8 hours!
At Sify, we used to get a mail, saying at 11.00 am please stand up for a one minute silence. One of our associates has passed away, and we need to pray for his soul. At 11 there would be an announcement saying, it is 11 and all are requested to stand up. The guys would stand up to see how many girls are there in the office, and who is wearing what. Because no other time could you see all the women at the same time. The women would honestly close their eyes, as if they are praying for the departed souls – being completely conscious about the number of guys staring at them! After the 1 minute of con job was over, people would sit, and get back to their work happily!
Once I saw an obituary of a 29 year old colleague in a newspaper. I was flabbergasted. I knew that person very well, and had interacted with him just a month ago in my office. I was very curious to know what went wrong, and why was there no silence prayer for him. I met another friend of his to inquire, and he said, “he had joined Citi Bank just a week prior to his death!” His friend said, “he always was under heavy stress due to his political boss, the unrealistic targets he used to be given, and the insecurities he was subjected to everyday.” “He used to drink literally everyday to get over the mental tensions, and finally died of brain hemorrhage – leaving behind a young wife and a 3 year old son”! May be employees of Citi Bank stood up for him for 1 minute at their office. God Knows!
Should you really work more than 8 hours at office?
To be continued…….
Posted by Kenni at December 2, 2005 06:12 AM