Response-Ability

Very recently, I was inducted into a group in the social media platform, which comprised of a homogeneous mixture of people, though they hailed from a thoroughly heterogeneous background...

The grooming was 'unto-becoming' a homogeneous kind, and for good...

Modern terminology calls it 'work-culture'.. it depends on how that work place views, the 'nurturing of employee's attitude' to be shaped, whereby, ... that organisation ensures its own growth only-through-the-growth of its customers :)

And so ,
the upper most of my thoughts started re-living those incidents at work place, which I felt were quite precious-to-me...

That sense of Response-ability.. got hammered into me within about 2 or 3 days of my joining duty... (the story is 40 + years old)...

“A-p-o-l-o-g-i-z-e”.... ordered the branch secretary of worker's union to me (I was supposed to become a member of this very union, when my services will get 'confirmed' after the probation).

I was to say, “I apologise” to an elderly person, of the subordinate category ....
As a fresher, I would have said those 'holy-words' even without so much of that 'thundering-voice'..

I was so used to being 'pushed-around' by any elder, right from the kid age (the family being large, now-called as 'joint')... I had long abandoned that urge to find out a 'why-so' when somebody orders me about, or inflicts a minor punishment... Mostly it was the only way they reassure themselves of their own presence-being-felt :)

I just reeled out that apology (and yes, that leader/neta ensured that quite a few of other staff too had got to-notice my act of 'tendering-unconditional-apology!'...

My personal-tragedy was, I didn't know why I was being asked to say it out ... (this song too was a little cruel, when it came too late for me... “aisa kya gunah kiya”... Hindi movie, 'Hum dil de chuke sanam')

I would have almost forgotten the whole incident ,
but for ...
what happened subsequently. :)

That leader was dragged towards me, and was forced to repeat an apology to me, by the 'recipient' of my apology :-))
This was something that I never expected !

That 'repeat' of apology... was supposed to be a 'full-refund' like , for something not fulfilled (cinema ticket refunded , when those 'reels' of that movie didn't arrive, etc)...

Now, two tragedies for me... First apology and Second apology... reasons unknown!

I decided, that this 'elderly-subStaff' was 'bound-to-be' a good-man, (that forced refund wala gesture)... and asked him 'What is this all about?'

He explained: “See, ... I am the inferior-most among the class of workers... sub-staff... and yet these people, have unanimously decided , not-to-tell any work to me!... You, in all innocence being a fresher, asked me to fetch that subsidiary book, to record the summary of voucher-transactions of the day... I am meant to be told that work, and what you did was perfectly-in-order... Just that it didn't suit the 'unanimous' decision of these guys to boycott-me from being told any work!.. You were not-even-told of such arrangement!!! That was their-fault, and I nailed them on that, to extract an apology from that fellow!”

He did not elaborate any further...

Over a few days, I made it a point to carefully observe this 'elder'...
Nobody told him any work... Even the official-record where 'allocation-of-work' is written up, failed to mention his name...
But he worked quite incessantly, and tirelessly....
The suspense doubled when I saw, even-regular-customers of that branch gave the same-treatment (no work shall be told to you—wala) !!

He was almost about to retire in a few months...

I had to be very sure, that I really got to the bottom of his 'ailment' (for being singled out thus!)...
I did manage.
He was a clear case of 'ability to respond'...
Then, where is the need to be told, “do-this, and do-that' ?... (Arey, .... that auto-pilot syshtim/system, in a modern aeroplane is just that! It responds to what the 200 dials says... Pilot/s can go to sleep/coffee-parlour/toilet/etc... )

What was meant to be an 'insult' , and then a learning for me.. turned out to be the most precious of lessons, taught in an unforgettable way :)..
I just joined the band-wagon of those who decided , not to tell-him any work... (I even tried to help him with whatever he-picked to do... anyway, I was a super-numerary-clerk, waiting to be thrown at a 'genuine-vacancy' at a remote village :-)... But that 'dada'/elder, would plead, 'no, at least not you!'...). I almost got 'adopted' as his own kid, while at work !

(That 'guy' might have been smiling from 'upstairs' for some recent-two decades... He inflicted me with his dis-ease, quite significantly... I couldn't help 'responding' to work that I felt, I had the ability to do )

Apologetically yours,
psn(15th June, 2015)

post script:
I had to omit names from this story... to make it ....'admirable' in large-scale, while the same thing, with names might become monstrous in small-scale (the movie “Night of the Generals”, Actor Omar-Sherrif's dialogue about 'murder'... “what is admirable in large scale is monstrous in small”).