July 20, 2011
Unfortunately, it is becoming usual for today’s world to be filled with uneasiness.
Be it terror strikes, religious disharmony, political upheavals, arrogance, corruption - reasons are many. The thought often comes to my mind as to how could human kind reach such a low? Is it our culture? I beg to disagree, and here are a few incidents that I have come across in my life to prove my point.
The Stranger
It was the month of Ramdan, a couple of years back, and time was about 6.45 pm. This is the month when devout Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and during summer in UAE it could be from 4. 30 am to 7 pm. From my balcony I could see this Arab man, probably in his fifties, walking with two children, around ten and eight years of age. A food packet was in his hand. And at that moment the prayer call echoed from the Mosque indicating that it was time to break the fast. The first thing that the elderly person did was to give a few dates and a bottle of water to his children, and then when he was about to eat he saw another person, who was for sure, a labourer from the sub-continent. Even before he could take even one bite of the date he offered his entire food to the person who was passing by, made sure he ate and then he shared the remaining with his kids and he too ate.
Jose
This is one incident I have to live with, the rest of my life. It was the year 2004 and Jose came to my office offering his transport services to my organization. He was around 48 years and had taken early retirement from Indian army. To my amazement he had come to Kuwait three days back to join a private transport company and now he was selling me, a veteran of transport and freight industry for 25 years, his transport services. He impressed me honestly, since he was giving me replies so convincingly, even though he did not know abc of business. Rather than accepting his transport service, I offered him a job and from next day he became one of my loyal assistants.
It was the post-war period and our business was mostly in Iraq; and when it was my time to go on a mission to Baghdad, it was Jose who offered himself and left with a convoy of 12 trailers shipment. I remember the month was September and as they reached Baghdad Airport, it was noon and off loading of the trucks started and completed at say around 3 pm. Thereafter Jose arranged sandwiches (Shawarma) for all the dozen drivers and made sure they had enough to eat and then he started eating.
At that moment, a bomb hit the place. The shrapnel hit three of the drivers and as others ran away to safety, Jose went to help the injured drivers and that's when he too was hit by another piece of shrapnel which pierced his neck and we lost Jose forever along with three Egyptian drivers. Jose would have been alive if he had not gone to help his colleagues. The thought that I should have been in that place brings shivers even today.
The Donors
I am sure this incident most of the readers will correlate. A couple of years back I was attended the inaugural ceremony of a new church in one of the parishes in Mangalore. The donors' names were announced to thank them. I was surprised and pleasantly impressed. Of the hundred names that were read, at least 15 read like – Kamalaksha Shenoy, Rs 25,000, Ram Bhat, Rs 15,000, Sanjeev Shetty, Rs 18,000, Abdul Jabbar, Rs 15,000, Ali Rs 10,000, Meenaxi Poojary Rs 5,000 and so on. Can anyone explain?
This is what we really are. People of passion with a willingness to help irrespective of caste, creed and religion.
The Officer
The purpose behind sharing the next incident that happened in my life is to demonstrate the goodness of the people as well to caution. On a wok day, at around 11 am when I was in office, a call came from my daughter who was working in an Abu Dhabi office for the past 8 months as an architect. She was in tears when she called me. As she was on my sponsorship, I had issued necessary release papers to the company to process the work permit which was delayed for reasons such as need for original certificate, and when that was given, it had to be attested at the state level, the national level, the Embassy and the UAE foreign ministry. All of this was done and by that time six months were over. Then we realized that the company was not paying salary to its staff, including to my daughter who had three months pending payment. We collectively decided that she terminate her employment and one month's notice was given.
During this period, unknown to my daughter, other workers had complained to the ministry of labour of non-payment of their dues. The ministry representatives came to her office to check on labour complaints, and found my daughter working there without work permit which is a crime. With due respect, they took her to the ministry informing me, as a sponsor, to be at the same office within one hour. I had to leave my work place, fully knowing that if my daughter had made a mistake, I would have done a even bigger crime by allowing her to work without a permit. I was nervous as well as helpless. At the ministry my daughter and I had to face the most senior officer along with his assistant and the next twenty minutes were the most difficult in my life, for he read and explained the mistake that we had made. It was like a court scene where the verdict was being read - payment of DHS 50,000 as fine for sponsor as well employee and our deportation!
It took a while to sink in what was said. Then we were asked to go out and wait. This was when the company representative was in a meeting with the same officers for another one hour. As they came out we were recalled in to the officer's room. Now we could see the same officer in a different mood. He asked both of us to sit down and said,
"Be at peace my friend, do not be afraid, what I did before was as an officer sitting in this seat. What I am doing now is as your brother. I know you have done a mistake and you have admitted. But the other party has made a bigger mistake and even though you have given all the papers they did not do the work they need to as per procedures. You were victimized. How can you work with such a company, how can you allow your daughter to work in such a company? This is against government rules. You cannot work in a company without they issuing work permit and company cannot allow someone like you to work asking for so much paper work. How can you work with liars? What they need they must get it organized first. Now go home and take your daughter and let her not work in that office. Both of you are educated and God Bless you. I will keep your passport here, which you can take next Sunday along with with your dues of three months, for I see no other way your company will pay your dues. Do not ever work again unless you have the papers processed and this is the only way you can claim your rights in a legal way."
Next week on the date that was given to us, we collected the passport as well my daughters' pending salary and dues from the ministry. It is very easy to bad mouth. But this incident shows how compassionate a person of different culture, country and religion can be to his mankind. For sure such instances need to be highlighted and such people need to be appreciated. This incident also should be an wake up call for my countrymen, those who are working with out work permit. It is like death. We never know when death comes and we never know when an official comes, as we realized the hard way.
I used to say I am Christian since I was born such. Now I say with pride I am human since I was born Human.
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