Mood:
caffeinatedNow Playing: Will Indians ever change?
Topic: UNPROFESSIONAL INDIANS
This morning when I read the newspaper heading that Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer died yesterday from the stress of his job, I could not help feel guilty. Some time ago a close friend of mine who had visited Japan had a strange story to tell me. He said that the people of Japan are so professional that everyone takes his or her job seriously, rather very seriously.
Leave alone having a chalta hai attitude to their job, they won't brook any nonsense at work place. Especially, they will never let anyone accuse them of being inefficient or unprofessional. He had a stunning example: Once he was waiting for the train at a station in Japan on his way to his work place, where he had taken up a job of a carpenter.
He noticed that the people waiting at the platform were exceedingly getting restless as the train was behind schedule by about three minutes. That was the second day of the train being late. But the next morning newspaper gave a front page story of how the train driver committed suicide because he felt guilty that he was being accused of inefficiency and unprofessionalism.
No one had even accused him of being inefficient yet he could not gather himself to face such accusations. Such are the stories which are told by our NRIs and PIOs who stay abroad, especially in the developed world.
My uncle who stays in the US for the best part of his life once came to Mumbai during the rains. Needless to say the road from the airport to my house in Mulund was pot hole-ridden. When we got to talk about the road conditions as well the taxis which ply on them in Mumbai, my uncle said that even in the US roads are built and maintained by municipalities and local bodies. They are not maintained by any private company. ''Then how do you keep your roads pot-hole free?'' I asked in half-incredulity.
''In the US and in the developed world, people (wherever they work, be it state government or private company) tend to be very professional in their approach to work. They will not give any chance for anyone to complain about their performance. In the developed countries people tend to have a lot of self-respect.'' Which only means, for them self-respect is a matter of personal belief, and not a matter of dinner debate as in India.
Recently, there was this case of a foreign (Japanese, if I am not wrong) contractor committing suicide in Kerala after he was forced to enter into corrupt deals with the state government, which delayed the work by the multinational company for which he was working. He was even threatened by the local goons. In the end his death has only remained a part of statistics, has anyone taken notice of it like the brutal murder of IIM alumni Majunath over his expose' of petrol adulteration.
We make so much of noise over corruption but what about our professionalism or the lack of it. The best thing which I notice when I see young people in profession is that they have imbibed the professionalism which my generation did not. My generation is too Indian in its outlook that we don't understand niceties like professionalism. I sincerely hope the young generation will sustain that professionalism right through their life.
A long time ago, when I was interviewing a Godrej precision tools division head, he told me that India can never beat Germany in precision tools. When I kept looking at him agape not knowing if he was in his right mind to say such a thing, he continued: ''precision tools are all about quality. The Germans try to inculcate quality standards in its people as a company policy. The company management would insist that the workers insist on quality even in their daily lives, when they are scouting for everyday grocery items at a mall''. We in India simply don't make up to that standard even when we are working in our offices and we have highly paid jobs.
Once I read a long time ago about how a five-star hotel in Mumbai awarded its steward for saving the day for them. The steward had served some foreign tourists soup for lunch. When the tourists found a fly in it, they were furious. But the steward explained them that it was not a fly but some Indian herbs which looked very similar to a fly. The tourists were convinced (or at least they pretended to be) and paid the bill and left. When the hotel management came to know of it, instead of sacking their whole team of cooks and stewards, they awarded him for saving the reputation of the hotel! Amen.
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