When Heroes Fall!

IIT, Harvard Baker scholar and a Bengali!  Sounds like the kind of description matrimonial dreams are made of!

 A CEO convicted on 4 of 6 counts and a possibility of a jail sentence anywhere between 10 to 25 years- possibly anybody’s worst nightmare!

Interestingly both these descriptions belong to one man.  I will always remember June 2012 as the fall of a hero – the first Indian born CEO of global corporation – Rajat Gupta charged with trading insider information. 

When a hero falls, it shakes up your own foundation. This incident and many others that have occurred reminds us that it is not enough to be on the same page but we need to read the same book as well. Our GDP, purchasing power, standard of living, income etc has grown and we are finally on the same page with other countries but when it comes to our ethical standards we are not reading the same book!

During Rajat Gupta’s trial, I happen to read an interesting article titled “Rajat Gupta is not a criminal, he is just an Indian” (First Post’2012).  The title sounded very offensive to me at first, but as you read you do tend to agree with the author. The trial that Rajat Gupta faces today could have been faced by any of us and very unintentionally.

 Imagine you are thinking of applying to a company. What would be your first move? Read about the company? Learn about their products? Of course not! “Who works there?” “Do I have contacts?” That will be your first question (First Post’2012).

 Most of us mistake nepotism for networking and that’s when things can get tricky.

It is also very important to understand what information is confidential. I can bet a lot of Indians might be whispering “Rajat Gupta just gave away some information. What’s the big deal?”

It’s a very big deal because he leaked confidential information to which he had access to by the virtue of his position as the board member of Goldman and P&G.

A lady applied at a famous MNC once. She provided elaborate information on her role with her job detail and client details. She didn’t get hired there. According to the MNC, this information was unethical! They thought that if she were to ever quit their company, a lot of their company’s information will get passed on with her CV!

Ideally if you are putting in your client details, you need to take their permission. Unfortunately, most of us are so busy gaining brownie points; we don’t even realize the enormity of this issue!

In some cases, it is not about ignorance, or to get ahead in competition, it is also about bad habits. How many of you have mugged up a book / chapter for an exam?  How many of you referenced the author in the examination hall? I bet nobody. Common! If we have to reference, every line would need referencing because we rote everything! But this is known as plagiarism - an offence that can lead to expulsion of students from Universities abroad.

In 2006, everybody wanted to know “How Opal Mehta got kissed, got wild, and got a life!” - a book written by an American Indian high school graduate who was enrolled in Harvard and had got a two book deal worth $ 500,000. But in two weeks later and till date people want to read about “How Kaavya Viswanathan got rich, got caught, and got ruined” (Sepia Mutiny). This lady had gone on to copy 40 pages from another novel! US media went berserk covering this and till date she is referred as the “copycat” or “plagiarist”.

People in India don’t realize the momentum of this. Partly because our educational system encourages roting and killing creativity and partly because we think “who will know?” Stealing ideas is as unethical as stealing jewels or money!

Whenever I am in an auto in Mumbai, I feel very scared of the unnecessary shortcuts taken by the auto driver - unnecessarily trying to be ahead of the other vehicles by taking wrong turns or by cutting lanes. I have never seen a significant time saving with this approach but a significant chance of meeting with an accident and getting fined by the traffic police. I think we all Indian have auto driver within us. Taking unnecessary unethical short cuts has become almost the norm.

Unethical short cuts are happening everywhere. You think you have seen enough with Common wealth games and then you know there India has got talent with 2G scam. Forget cheating human beings, we have stolen fodder also. We already had match fixing in international cricket, now we have IPL. Before music directors would steal only from English songs now we don’t even spare devotional songs.

Thought taking these short cuts could helps us earn some brownie points, get a little ahead in the competition but in the long term, people find out. It comes out in the open eventually bringing the individual and the nation in the spotlight for the wrong reasons!

Playing Doctor, Doctor

Crocin, D’Cold, and Vicks Action 500, Benadryl.  I call these my “all problem solution”. These over the counter drugs require no prescription making purchase easy and self – medication easier. Do any of us stop and think how these medicines can ever go wrong? Rohit thought likewise. Rohit had a muscle tear and was on pain killers for the same.  While he was on this medicine, he realized he had cough and cold. He had some D’Cold total and had it to cure the cough and cold. He took it twice that day. In the night, he broke into a sweat. He just couldn’t breathe and then he started getting chest pain. He was taken to emergency room of the hospital. The doctor diagnosed his condition and said he had a paracetamol overdose and if he had taken D’Cold another time, he could have died of heart attack. A lot of us don’t know that pain killers have Paracetamol in them and while on it if you take Cronin or any cough syrup, the result could be fatal!

I remember that a lot of us would play “doctor, doctor” as kids. Unfortunately a lot of us still play this game as adults!

There are various reasons why a lot of us do self – medication, don’t follow the prescription to the T. Below are the most popular reasons for doing so:

It’s not a big deal: My calf muscle use to hurt a lot. It was quite frequent. I use to think maybe it’s just stress or maybe I am too tired. This went on for 6 months.  I use to keep spraying Ralispray on the calves.  Gradually, I saw that the pain was spreading to my back, neck and finally I realized it had spread to my ribs and collar bones. That was the day I went to the doctor. I was diagnosed with Vitamin D3 deficiency. My level of Vitamin D3 was 8 and the range starts from 80! Had I gone much earlier, I could have not only saved myself from the agony but prevented it from hitting rock bottom. A vitamin deficiency on its own might not be a serious condition if treated on time but by self medicating and assuming the source of the problem, I aggravated the problem.  I was told try not to do activities like aerobic because of the extent which the deficiency had made my bones fragile, I just could not risk being injury prone.

I don’t want to get too dependent:  a friend of mine was diagnosed of ADD and she was asked to take medicine for the same. She continued with the dosage as prescribed but gradually got worried that she might get too dependent on it. She then started to reduce the dosage on her own and then stopped it completely. Nothing changed. She was fine both at her work and outside work. However, her sleep started getting disturbed and she started getting nightmares. She was feeling so paranoid that could not sleep anymore. Finally she told her doctor. When her doctor heard the story, she told my friend that this was happening because she abruptly discontinued her ADD medicines! ADD is a condition of a very active mind and her mind was just working up even in the night. She finally was treated accordingly and is not enjoying good night’s sleep.

I keep forgetting:  This is probably the most common reason why people don’t take their medicines – everybody keeps forgetting. One of my aunts was asked by the doctor to take a calcium medicine every day after breakfast. She is a banker and had a lot on her plate. She kept forgetting to take the medicine in the morning most of the days. However, before going to bed she would see the bottle at her bedside and take it before going to bed.  This continued for some time. One day my aunt came back from office half day due to excruciating pain in her stomach. Finally we took her to a doctor where we learnt that she has got kidney stone! The doctor asked her if she was on any medicine. She said none except a calcium pills. The doctor enquired about her water intake and at what time she would take the calcium medicine. My aunt said she took 1 litre of water and took the medicine before bed time. The doctor said that the very fact she took the Calcium medicine in the night could be one of the biggest reason for the kidney. Because there is no consumption of water at bedtime, this caused calcium deposition instead of absorption. The reason one is asked to have calcium in the daytime is to enable enough consumption of water throughout the day. Kidney stone is formed by calcium deposition and it happens to a lot of people who drink less water but in this case the condition got worsened because of the time my aunt took the calcium medicine.

Many of us don’t like visiting doctors and in most of the metros we know it’s not easy to get to see doctors at times. Switching medicines, stopping them abruptly and not going to doctors can accentuate, linger the problem much more than we desire. Most of us have taken medicines since we were born but that doesn’t mean we can practice medicine on ourselves. Be very careful about the dosage and of the duration you have been taking the medicine. Go to a doctor who has the time and with whom you are comfortable discussing your concerns. If you worried about dependency, speak to the doctor. If you are not confident about the medicine prescribed, take a second opinion but don’t play doctor!