The Compassionate Leader

There is a rice and potato shop bang beside my paternal house, run by a person whom we grew up calling as Prabhash da (da meaning elder brother in Bengali). Despite being a millionaire, he is one of the most humble persons I have come across till date. He dresses like an ordinary man, speaks very softly and always with a smile. 

When the lockdowns began,  all shops in the market beside the house were closed. They opened on select days of the week and for a few hours only. Prabhash da however kept his shop's shutter partially down. 

There were many vegetable and fish sellers who were stranded in the market. They somehow pulled in to cook vegetables for their meals till the supplies ran out. People thronged the market braving COVID with masks to buy weekly supplies. Soon, the sellers had only rice and potatoes as meals...mostly provided by Prabhash da. 

I watched him one day, distributing the rice and potatoes to the sellers with a soft word or two and always a smile. As his is the main rice shop in the area, all the COVID aid packages were collected from there. He had two helpers in his shop.  

That day there were a few people queued up infront of his shop, who started arguing and then almost fighting while waiting for the aid packets. 

I saw Prabhash da approach them calmly and feared the angry folks might hurt him, or worse vandalise his shop.

However, he went and calmly told them, "Do you really think it would be faster if you fight here? If you want to speed up the distribution, why don't you hop into my shop and help us? You can have tea with us. It's quite hot today...would you rather have some water?"

And these words he said with his typical calm smile. I held my breath and watched the reactions of the two men. 

They first looked surprised. Then a bit confused and finally one of them said, "Sorry brother. It's just that we have to go to six places with these packets."

That day I watched compassionate leadership in action in real life. This is just one of the innumerable stories that we can have of leadership in last one year. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Biggest mistake of my life

I have often faced this question in the last two weeks --- why don't you write a story about these times? By "these times" people meant COVID-19 and of course lockdown. I have replied sometimes with silence, at other times with a "let me think about it". Truth is I don't want to write about it. At least not in the next one year. Before you tick me off as a lazy lump good at giving excuses, let me explain. At least let me try  to... I want to write. Have been meaning to write and been doing a lot of research for the last four months. But not about COVID-19. I am researching for my next story after Five Spice Curry. I have the plot in mind, but I need a lot of research. And it is not even remotely connected to this virus that has turned our lives upside down. Ok I am exaggerating. My life has changed, but not upside down. More of lateral inversion. Instead of braving the Chingrihata road block twice daily for five days a week, I am now doubling up as my
Read more

Down the Memory Lane

I went to The Telegraph House at Prafulla Sarkar Street after 12 years today.  It takes 30 mins to reach there from Gariahat….by the Kolkata Metro of course. I am dead sure about the time, as I used to start exactly at 3:00 PM every day to be in time for the 3:30 PM desk slot at The Telegraph. It took 15 mins to reach the Kalighat Metro station and catch the 3:15 metro to Dum Dum (that was the last stop at in 2004). The tube rail reached the Chandni Chowk station at 3:28 PM, leaving me with full 2 mins to rush to the escalator, climb the moving steps, much to the disgust of others around me, and run up panting to the white imposing building. Today, too, I assumed a repeat telecast of the above journey. I had to be there at 11:30 AM. So, I started off from Gariahat at 11:00 AM and hailed an auto rickshaw. The fare from Gariahat to Rashbehari used to be Rs 5. I noted happily that it has increased only by Rs 3 in the last 12 years. I glanced up at the electronic t
Read more

Strange Twists of Time

Spoons, biscuits, coffee jars, notepads, pens, pencils, staplers, a half broken cup, and a stole --- these are the first things I can see now in the half-open drawer. This is just the top drawer, there are two more in my office cabinet. “Ok, I will do this tomorrow,” I decide quickly closing the drawer. This decision is easy for me. However, the decision to move out of the comfort zone has not been easy. It took me one year. To cut a long story short, I decided to do all the things I enjoy doing again. Things that make me happy – walking in the rain, travelling, whistling, to just start the list. Plus, I am ready once again to work for passion…. er of course without impacting my bank balance. Trust me, it is not easy deciding to be happy . We are brought up on the principle of forsaking our happiness for everyone and everything else. Sacrifice and compromise seem to be the main ingredients of love. Otherwise you are termed as selfish and self-centered. Mind you, t
Read more