Happy Independence Day…. Thanks god it was a Sunday… The day the I like the most…no phone calls from the office. I am free to do my personal stuff. Oh, just received a SMS… Must be a request for a movie, from one of the girlfriends I have
….. …………
………………
Crap... It was not the girl I was expecting…. The SMS is from one of my customers… a request… or I should say a demand… with a long list of things which he needs tomorrow. What to do? I can not decide of my own. I have to call my boss.
Ring ring….. ring ring…..
“Hello, boss, I just received a SMS, a customer wants …….What to do?”
-“Ignore”
-“But boss, if I don’t do this, how will I prove my products to be superior than the competititors?”
-“I don’t know…. You are a Manager…. You must know how to handle these situations. Moreover our company is an ethical company. We can not do these. Anyways, I am busy now, oh btw, I need sales order tomorrow. Bye…”
-"Bye" I uttered the "F" word after disconnecting the phone.
Oh, I have not introduced myself. I am a salesman. I do sale Antibiotics. Though, even being a freasher, I have a designation which a govt. employee would like to get before retirement.
Anyways, after the conversation with my boss, I decided to wish the particular customer, happy Independence Day, coz he will be independent to decide empirical choices of antibiotics from tomorrow, free from any obligations before prescribing my competitor’s brand.
Anyways today I was going through the newspaper. The first news which shocked me was a report on Arsenic contamination in drinking water and how much it has already spread in our state.(almost entire state) It left me with no option but to be jealous of few of our richest citizens, whose locality was still free of Arsenic.(Though less than 10%)
"Well, Happy Independence Day to you guys"….
Another Article switched the panic button among all of my family members (I am sure it did so to many of my countrymen) It says a bacteria has been identified which can not be killed by any of the antibiotic options we have, on earth. And some scientists from India and U.K. have identified the source of the super bug. They say, it has originated from India. My dad had just started panicking along with my sister thinking what will happen if we get infected by that super bug, called NDM-1, when my mother came to their rescue.
She was watching some “Saas Bahu” serials on star plus and accidentally changed the channel to a news channel. She said, “Why are you panicking based on a false report? Our Health Ministry has just declared that report as rubbish, and said that it is just an attempt to disturb the image of India in global healthcare scenario. India has a world class healthcare system”..... "go and watch the live speech of our minister on TV", she continued.
Since I am into antibiotic selling, I know how we sell. And I know the situation which is actually even worse. But I had no intention to snatch the Independence of my mom… she is happy with the little independence she has been provided. She is free from fear.
So is the case with many of us, who are enjoying their bit of Independent life, though, may be devoid of proper healthcare. Our per capita income is still way below the target, with exponential growth in population. We are happy to have right to have our own political opinion, though it’s only on paper. (I read it in Social Science text book, when I was in class IX.)
I don’t want to dilute the mood… I just wanted to wish you all, “Happy Independence Day”.
Now may I request you all to go back to what you were doing earlier. As our great actor puts it, you can easily fool your heart by saying “ALL IS WELL”. Believe me, it works. It has been working for the last 63 years.
