Courage is not the absence of fear

Courage is not the absence of fear


Tragedy struck our community a few weeks back, as one of our colleauges in a hit and run accident, lost his beloved wife and is now being treated in the hospital along with other injured family members. This incident shook many of us to the core; not able to fathom such a bereavement and loss to one so close to us. A sense of helpless-ness, an inability to even share what we feel..which has sparked a sense of outrage that I personally have never seen before.

People have shown up in troves to help out the family, commiserate, do relays at the hospital to take care of things, spent hours in the hospital lobby fielding media and by standers; spent time chatting with the family and many are doing much more in the background. Friends and batchmates of the victims have created a petition site, facebook group seeking Justice, organized candle light vigils, asked questions of the media and created a lot of pressure on the administration to do something and put who-ever is responsible behind bars. A lot of people have joined this movement even though they do not know the victims? They feel for the cause and want to help out as much as they can.

Seeing 200 people on the streets of Gurgaon, and 25000 + people on our virtual site fighting for justice, makes me feel proud of this community…

But as the case is heating up, and we are In the middle of all this; suddenly I am feeling a sense of apprehension, Am I safe? Will I be targeted? Is it Ok for me to speak to the media? Should I not participate in this movement ? People are beseeching us to be careful and be aware of the ramification/s of what we are doing; not be naive or get carried away in the emotions …I have heard this statement three times in the last two days – “We are tax paying, law abiding, god fearing citizens”, but should that make us strong or weak ?????? ”

What is this fear ? Who am I scared of? What can be the worst?

Does this fear give me a license to stay quiet and hide in the throes of our bouregious existence?

As a tax paying, god fearing, law abiding citizen.. is it not my right to help those who need our assistance at a time of dire need?

Am I excused by just posting on facebook, commenting on the administration and crying out Hulla Bol on my laptop?

Again what is the worst that can happen to me? Die… but dont’t we all have to die some day… I can get killed by some one speeding on NH8, or during a robbery in the middle of the night or because of a lifestyle disease..

And then I realized how many stupid times a day we used the word “I” or “me”. In fact, probably all I ever do was think about myself. And how lame is that when there are millions and billions of people who need our help.

As this quote exemplifies ; Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all.

I saw a post this morning ; BMW Accident; pregnant woman; intellectual friends; media and internet outrage – Verdict – BlockBuster ; Maruti 800, man standing on the street, no eye witness – flop show.

My friend…. I understand that for every BMW hit and run, there are probably several cases that bite the dust every day; however I believe, my charity starts with one. Even if we can get Justice in this one case…. we will be better off than not doing anything at all.

What is common between Will Smith and Dublin?

Interesting question. This is not meant to be a research on Smith’s roots or family ties to Dublin. 

This story begins as I was prepping for my trip to Dublin. I had been invited as a speaker at the CIPD – in Ireland. The Dates had been planned in April – May for a conference scheduled in June. I was excited to have been chosen to speak on the topic. Well volunteered not chosen…! My team started pulling together the slides, we changed the story line several times, the team patiently worked with me to make those changes, each time i had a whim

As we came closer to the event date, I think I was nervous, new city, new people and a conference where not 10-20 people were landing up but close to 100 expecting me to give them Enlightenment, Gyan, Teach them things that they may know or not know. We will have Consultants, HR Leaders and a lot of mid-level HR and Learning executives. Hmm…well I was all nerves.

19th June, the D Day – the team in Dublin had strategically planned for multiple iterations of the delivering the same content to audiences within the firm, senior leaders; HR people; Consulting members; our Analytics Team in Dublin. By noon, i was getting into the flow, yet there was something missing. What was it?

I googled Analytics on the World Wide Web, to see If i will get something interesting to share. The first was the definition of Analytics by Oxford dictionary; and a lot of hits focusing on how different fields use Analytics, and the one that caught my eye was Will Smith.

How can a Holly wood actor use Analytics? Seriously. So this is what i got which blew me away. Will Smith before he became this big timer, used to appear in a sitcom called Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire. I am not sure how many of you have seen that show. Many of the actors of that show came later to SNL (Saturday Night Live) and some became stars like Smith. Now coming back to the point; Smith wanted to make movies; and not just anything; but make money. So he and his manager went out and studied the top 10 highest grossing movies of all times. Well, interesting facts ;

a) 10 out of 10 had special effects
b) 9 out of 10 had special effects and outer space creatures
And 8 out 10 had special effects, outer space creatures and a love story.

Well, Well, and the rest is history. If you see many of the recent movies Independence Day, the Men in Black franchise, IRobot, Hancock. Even Hancock made 600$ Mn plus. The coolest part was choosing what to analyze. He asked the right questions – well, kind of actor do i want to be; a romantic lead, maybe imitate what Tom Cruise and Hanks were doing in those days; do i want to be Oscar actor, be recognized for Oscar winning screenplays. He chose to do movies that made $$$$ and he achieved that goal.

I ended up using this story as an opening for my session. People laughed, and yes ladies and gentlemen that was a winner. A topic that can be dry as a blade of grass, turned out to be funny, and kept people engaged and asking the right kind of questions.

The show was over, and we were eager to eat, drink and celebrate. Will Smith had once again saved the day.