Listen to the whisper ... or wait for the brick!

A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and drove the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car, shouting, "What was that all about and who are you?

Just what the heck are you doing?

That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money.
Why did you do it?"

The young boy was apologetic. "Please mister ... please, I'm sorry... I didn't know what else to do," he pleaded.
"I threw the brick because no one else would stop..."
With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car.
"It's my brother," he said.
"He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up."

Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."
Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out his fancy handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay.

"Thank you and may God bless you," the grateful child told the stranger.
Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the little boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home. It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!



God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us.

It's our choice: Listen to the whisper ... or wait for the brick!

MAN WITH A STEEL FRAME

MAN WITH A STEEL FRAME

Under A Dangerous Motto - By refusing to take bribes, the Madurai collector has earned 18 transfers in 20 years, a modest house and bank balance and lots of respect

On a hot summer afternoon, on Madurai’s busy main road, the district collector, U. Sagayam, saw a young man talking on a cellphone while riding a motorbike. He asked his driver to wave the man down, got down from his car and meted out instant punishment: plant 10 saplings within 24 hours. Somewhat unconventional justice, some might say. But that’s how Sagayam works. ‘Lanjam Thavirtthu, Nenjam Namartthu’ (Reject bribes, hold your head high), says a board hanging above Sagayam’s chair in his modest office. That’s the code he lives by, even if politicians are incensed they cannot bend him their way— he’s been transferred 18 times in the last 20 years—and has made enemies of both superiors and subordinates. “I know I sit under a dangerous slogan and probably alienate people,” he says. “But I have been the same Sagayam from Day 1. Standing up against corruption is not for a season. Nor is it a fad. It’s forever.” Two years ago, as district collector of Namakkal, he voluntarily declared his assets: a bank balance of Rs 7,172 and a house in Madurai worth Rs 9 lakh. Once, when his baby daughter, Yalini, who had breathing problems, was suddenly taken ill, he did not have the Rs 5,000 needed for admitting her to a private hospital. At that time he was deputy commissioner (excise) in Coimbatore and there were 650 liquor licences to be given out. The going bribe for each was rumoured to be Rs 10,000.

Sagayam started cleaning up Madurai the minute he landed here. The main bus terminus at Mattuthavani looked more like a bazaar, with shops all over the bus-shelters and no waiting place for passengers. Even a police outpost had been turned into a shop. The system was well-oiled with haftas to local politicians and policemen. Sagayam quickly went
through the rulebook, cited the relevant clauses and cleaned up the entire area. But didn’t it hit poor shopkeepers who lost their livelihood? “A violation is a violation,” says Sagayam, “but we will help them rehabilitate.” Nageshwaran, a taxidriver and one of Sagayam’s many fans, says, “He’s strict and hasn’t taken even ten paise in bribe during his career. He’s
like the upright collectors they show in some films, a real hero with integrity.” Sagayam’s masters degrees in social work and law come in useful in his role as an administrator. He knows the rulebooks in detail and is not afraid of using them, however powerful the opponent. No wonder then that Sagayam’s career is marked with the scars of countless battles.

When he was in Kanchipuram as revenue officer, he took on the sand mafia, ordering them to stop dredging sand from the Palar riverbed. Large-scale dredging had made the
area flood-prone. The mafia sent goons to assault Sagayam, but he did not budge and would not take back the order. He also took on a mighty soft-drink mnc when a consumer
showed him a bottle with dirt floating in it. He sealed the bottling unit and banned the sale of the soft drink in the city. In Chennai, he locked horns with a restaurant chain and
recovered four acres valued at some Rs 200 crore. Given such credentials, it wasn’t surprising for him to be picked by the Election Commission to oversee elections in Madurai, as famous for its temples as its political gods. During the last polls, Sagayam took on M.K. Azhagiri, the local MP and son of former CM and DMK supremo M. Karunanidhi. He conducted voter awareness campaigns in colleges; the DMK petitioned the court twice, seeking to end what it said was an attempt to influence voters, but the court demurred.
Sagayam’s wife Vimala has stood by him all these years but she was rattled by some of the threats during the elections. “He always says if you are right, nobody can hurt you,” she says. “But sometimes it becomes difficult.” Sagayam takes a hands-on approach to his work. He holds a Monday ‘durbar’, at which anyone can meet him with their complaints. During tours of the district for review meetings and inspections, he will suddenly stop a school bus to talk to children or duck into a school to take a class. When students tell him they want to be IAS or IPS officers, he asks, “It’s all well to say now that you’ll be honest, but will you remain unbending about not taking bribes throughout your career?” Some months back, while driving to a village, he found a 92-year-old woman cleaning rice. She said she had to work in order to eat. He immediately sanctioned Rs 1,000 as old-age pension for her. When 60-year-old Vellamma met him during a tour of Uthappanaikkanoor village this week and asked him to grant her a pension, he said, “I can do that. But do you want me to send your son to jail too—for abandoning you?” He said it with a smile, as a joke, but he has in fact taken action against children who don’t take care of their aging parents.

“I believe, as Mahatma Gandhi said, that India lives in her villages,” says Sagayam, who also idolises Subhash Chandra Bose. His years as a collector—he has slept overnight in village schools many times—have convinced him to better the lot of villagers by strengthening the village administrative officer (VAO) system. Many VAOs have never visited villages and often stay miles away from where they should be, in cities. In Namakkal, his action against errant VAOs had them ganging up with politicians to get him transferred. Over 5,000 villagers  protested, saying they wouldn’t let Sagayam go. The politicians had to retreat. Sagayam says he learnt honesty on his mother’s knees. He is the youngest of four sons of a farmer from Pudukottai. “Our adjoining field had mango trees and my friends and I would pick the fallen fruit,” he says. “But my mother made me throw the mangoes away, saying I should enjoy only what is mine.” Now his daughter Yalini wants to become a collector. When she has an argument with her brother Arun, she asks her father, “Is he really your son? He just told a lie!” Both of them are proud of their father.

Recently, after a long time, the Sagayam family went on a vacation to Kullu in Himachal Pradesh. While visiting a gurudwara, a stranger came up to their father and asked him, “Aren’t you IAS officer Mr Sagayam?” Yalini and Arun have not stopped beaming.

Why we should be proud to be Indian.....................

Why we should be proud to be Indian..................... Read on and you would soon be.......if you aren't already! Why IndiaWorks - written by internationally acclaimed film director Shekhar Kapoor. A greater ‘hole in the wall’you cannot imagine. A small fading sign on the top saying “Cellphoon reapars” barely visible through the street vendors crowding the Juhu Market in Mumbai. On my way to buy a new Blackberry, my innate sense of adventure made me stop my car and investigate. A shop not more than 6 feet by 6 feet. Grimy and uncleaned. ‘Can you fix a Blackberry ?” ‘Of course, show me” ”How old are you” ‘Sixteen’Bullshit. He was no more than 10. Not handing my precious blackberry to a 10 year old in unwashed and torn T shirt and pyjamas! At least if I buy a new one, they would extract the data for me. Something I have been meaning to do for a year now. ‘What’s wrong with it?” ‘Well, the roller track ball does not respond. It’s kind of stuck and I cannot operate it” He grabs it from my hand and looks at it “You should wash your hands. Many customers have same problem. Roller ball get greasy and dirty, then no working’ Look who was telling me to wash my hands. He probably has not bathed for 10 days, I leaned out to snatch my useless blackberry back.. ” You come back in one hour and I fix it’. I am not leaving all my precious data in this unwashed kid’s hands for an hour.No way. “Who will fix it?” ‘Big brother’ ‘How big is ‘big brother?’ ‘big …. Umm ..thirty’ Then suddenly big brother walks in. 30 ??? He is no more than 19. ‘What problem?’ He says grabbing the phone from my greasy hand into his greasier hand. Obviously not trained in etiquette by an upmarket retail store manager. ‘Normal blackberry problem. I replace with original part now.You must wash your hand before you use this’. What is this about me washing my hands suddenly?? 19 year old big brother rummages through a dubious drawer full of junk and fishes out a spare roller ball packed in cheap cellophane wrapper. Original part? I doubt it. But by now I am in the lap of the real Indiaan there is no escape as he fishes out a couple of screwdrivers and sets about opening my Blackberry. “How long will this take?” ”Six minutes” This I have to see. After spending the whole morning trying to find a Blackberry service centre and getting vague answers about sending the phone in for an assessment that might take a week, I settle down next to his grubby cramped work space. At least I am going to be able to watch all my stored data vanish into virtual space. People crowd around to see what’s happening. I am not breathing easy anyway. I tell myself this is an adventure and literally have to stop myself grabbing my precious Blackberry back and making a quick escape. But in exactly six minutes this kid handed my Blackberry back. He had changed the part and cleaned and serviced the whole phone. Taken it apart, and put it together. As I turned the phone on there was a horrific 2 minutes where the phone would not come on. I looked at him with such hostility that he stepped back. ‘you have more than thousand phone numbers ?” ‘yes’. ‘backed up?’ ‘no’ ‘Must back up. I do it for you. Never open phone before backing up’ ‘You tell me that now?’ But then the phone came on and my data was still there. Everyone watching laughed and clapped. This was becoming a show. A six minute show. I asked him how much. ‘500 rupees’ He ventured uncertainly. People around watched in glee expecting a negotiation. That’s $10 dollars as against the Rs 30,000 ($ 600) I was about to spend on a new Blackberry or a couple of weeks without my phone. I looked suitably shocked at his ‘high price’ but calmly paid him. Much to the disappointment of the expectant crowd ‘do you have an I-Phone ? Even the new ‘4D one ? ‘no, why” ‘I break the code for you and load any ‘app’ or film you want. I give you 10 film on your memory stick on this one, and change every week for small fee’ I went home having discovered the true entrepreneurship that lies at what we call the ‘bottom of the pyramid’. Some may call it piracy, which of course it is, but what can you say about two uneducated and untrained brothers aged 10 and 19 that set up a ‘hole in the wall’ shop and can fix any technology that the greatest technologists in the world can throw at them. I smiled at the future of our country. If only we could learn to harness this potential. ‘Please wash your hands before use’ were his last words to me.Now I am feeling seriously unclean.