“Are you the PRINCIPAL here?”.....

As I walked in the office with my daughter on a lazy Saturday morning, the security at the gate greeted with a smart salute…..my daughter was suitably impressed ….. I’ll be nothing but a hypocrite if I don’t admit being pleased at my own importance in front of my daughter. I guess I had a little swagger as I walked to my cabin…… We were there just to pick up some stuff that I had left there…. As we walked back, she asked me, “Is this your place?” looking at my puzzled expression she asked, “Are you the PRINCIPAL of this whole place?” and in a flash I suddenly realized what she meant…”Hmmm, not exactly sweetheart”…. I only wished…. “Then how come the security saluted you? Our security salutes only the PRINCIPAL of the school”…… I did not know how to explain her and did not have the heart to tell the kid that amidst all the crisis I get into every day, I generally don’t have the swagger as I walk to my cabin!

For some strange reason, my mind went back a few years back while I was still in my first job…… one of our peons, Dattu, one day came to me and said,” I need a little favour”…. I suddenly became alert – what would it be…job for someone, money, extended leave….as if reading my mind he clarified “I don’t need anything for myself but we run a school in our community. There is a batch of 10th standard students that is passing out. It will be nice if you can address them”. Honestly, I felt a little overwhelmed……. Being in my twenties myself, I hardly had an exposure to such an honour. When I reached the venue, I saw Dattu beaming as the head of reception committee…… all decked up, wearing spotless white like a local politician and of course with the mandatory “Gandhi Cap”. We shook hands and proceeded to the venue…it went off ok (honestly don’t remember much of it!) … at the end, I had tea at Dattu’s place…. We discussed everything including politics……usual stuff when two colleagues meet on a social occasion… Indeed I had a nice time…… As I walked away I remember having a few thoughts ringing in my head…. Dattu and I hit off really well ….. I could very clearly see that he was a community leader – a fact I hardly knew ….. for Dattu’s kids who were introduced to me, I was a colleague from their father’s office and I must confess that I had graciously responded to a peon’s invitation…. My idea of my social responsibility blah….blah…..

As a man (or of course the woman for that matter) walks to the office from home, he walks out as the boss of the house….. runs the family. As he leaves for the office he is easily the most important person in the house …. There is an image of the parent that the kids build up in their mind …. Irrespective of what happens at the office….. As we take decisions that impact people or for matter as we speak to them would it not be great if we just graciously accept the fact that we are talking to someone’s HERO…… I guess conflict management experts soon will go out of the jobs!