THE FIRST BOSS...

 

Some weeks ago, I happened to meet a close relative of mine in one of our family functions.



About twenty years ago, after completing his graduation in Mangalore, he had just landed in this big city, Mumbai, to find his own place. Like we all migrants had been and are – this relative of mine was very unpolished and naive. I had helped him to find his first job. It was a very small office where he had to work under the ‘lone’ staff who had been happy working alone for years! My relative wanted an entry, something to start with and get the hands-on experience. So, he joined this office. 

 

My relative could stick on to this office – rather his one-and-only Boss – barely for a month!

Why… What happened?

The one who owned this firm was too busy - rather, too helpless - to know what was happening in his small organization. The person employed by him had become an island and created a web-sort-of work-atmosphere around him. The owner would blindly trust this employee and the latter would exploit this weakness of his Master… So, understandably, the employee did not want anyone to come in between him and his Master… he did not want anyone to ‘unearth’ his misdeeds… He was too suspicious of anyone who would come close to his table. He trusted none. He lived in constant fear… of being caught, being fired.

So, against this backdrop, how do you expect my relative to learn anything worthwhile? Leave alone ‘learning’, how do you expect him to go home and sleep peacefully? It was an endless trauma for my relative… “This man doesn’t open-up, doesn’t teach me anything,” my relative would cry before me, “he doesn’t even allow me to come close to his table!”

I had immediately sensed what was happening. Whatever it was, I had consoled my relative saying, “Such people don’t grow… and, don’t allow others to grow, as well… They live in constant fear and distrust… They end-up in misery.” I would advice my young relative, “Now, this is your first ever work experience… You must have gained nothing as far as job-skills are concerned… But, to hell with such job-skills, you will get it anywhere else, anyway… But, what you are getting by working under this miserable ‘Uncle Scrooge’ – you will never, ever get till that Christmas when the Santa ‘really’ comes!” I would encourage this young man saying, “Having seen this type of men in this world, you decide, now – when you go about your life - whether to be like him or like how you want him to be!”

Twenty years later, when I had bumped into this relative of mine in our family function, I asked him whether he was in touch with his ‘first Boss’!

I was in touch with my relative. I had been closely watching his progress. Just a year or so was the only duration he had worked for anybody… After that, he started his own business, in a very small way. But, because he was exactly opposite of his first Boss, because he was an incorrigible optimist, because he trusted people and made the best use of their unique strengths and talents, because he was gentle, sincere and giving – he attracted goodwill and loyalty from his clients and staff… His clients grew as his business did… His staff stayed loyal to him for years and grew along, too… 

Whatever happened to the first Boss?

Charles Dickens’s immortal short story, ‘A Christmas Carol’ came to my mind. In this moving fable, Uncle Scrooge, the protagonist, lived miserably alone… never celebrated Christmas… and hated anyone else celebrating. He was mean and miser… had no faith in people… He suffered from lack. One Christmas, his little nephew, Fred, comes in Uncle Scrooge’s life to cause a come around, a snowfall…! It is a touching tale, on whose diet; we all had grown up…

 

Did this Uncle Scrooge come around? Did he celebrate Christmas?

 

No,  he did not. My relative told me that this Scrooge had a miserable end!

I, instantly, remembered another famous poem – ‘TWO SEAS’ by Gayle D. Erwin. It is so beautiful, so befitting… that I wish to present to  you, here  in my blog,  not only the poem, but also the short film based on that. 

 

TWO SEAS

by Gayle D. Erwin

There are two seas in Palestine. One is fresh, and fish are in it. Splashes of green adorn its banks. Trees spread their branches over it and stretch out their thirsty roots to sip of its healing waters. Along its shores the children play, as children played when He was there. He loved it. He could look across its silver surface when He spoke His parables. And on a rolling plain not far away He fed five thousand people. 

The River Jordan makes this sea with sparkling water from the hills. So it laughs in the sunshine. And men build their houses near to it, and birds their nests; and every kind of life is happier because it is there. 

The River Jordan flows on south into another sea. Here is no splash of fish, no fluttering leaf, no song of birds, no children's laughter. Travelers choose another route, unless on urgent business. The air hangs heavy above its water, and neither man nor beast nor fowl will drink. 

What makes this mighty difference in these neighbor seas? Not the river Jordan. It empties the same good water into both. Not the soil in which they lie not the country about. 

This is the difference. The Sea of Galilee receives but does not keep the Jordan. For every drop that flows into it another drop flows out. The giving and receiving go on in equal measure. 

The other sea is shrewder, hoarding its income jealously. It will not be tempted into any generous impulse. Every drop it gets, it keeps.

The Sea of Galilee gives and lives. This other sea gives nothing. It is named The Dead. There are two kinds of people in the world. There are two seas in Palestine.

My relative, today, has dozens of young men working under him… and, they have been there with him for years… all happy and growing!

His first Boss, the Scrooge, wanted no one… gave nothing, shared nothing… and got nothing. Lost everything!

It was a sad Christmas… Not for the ‘first employee’, but for his 'first Boss'!

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pics.: Roopa Sushil