Today I came across an interesting caption of an article in afaqs.com viz “The Power of Na”. This refers to a social interest campaign urging citizens not to tolerate injustice and learn to oppose evil by saying “No”. (TV Commercial can be viewed here ) The campaign also reminds one of the well known book “Don’t Say Yes when you want to say No”.
Today when I have adopted “Na” as my initial and “Naa-vi” as an identity it appears amusing to read the article and recollect one of my past experiences.
Recently, one of my friends cautioned me that I am fighting with many persons in the establishment and it is not good for business. In the light of this friendly remark, I now revisit some interesting experiences of the past which is relevant to the development of “Na” Vijayashankar.
During an early part of my career in Indian Overseas Bank, there was an incident in Coimbatore when there was a need for me to fight for what I considered as a requirement of my office against the wishes of some administrators. True to my principles, I said “No” to one of my superiors much against the tradition. Following this, the senior executive speaking in a function in front of all the staff members made a point without refering me by name but to every one’s clear understanding that it was meant for me, about a “Principle of Success” he had followed in his career. He said “As long as I was saying No, No, I could not make a progress in my career. But once I learnt to say Yes, Yes, I had a quick career growth. I want my young colleagues to understand this truth in career growth”. Even after about 30 years since the incident, the words of my superior is still ringing in my ears and I often analyze my career in the light of this suggestion.
Fortunately or unfortunately, I could not follow this advise and continued to always fight for what I considered is correct. Along with my initials “Na”, I had become a “No” person without realizing the meaning of the word in Hindi. This lead to several disagreements with superiors both within the Bank and even later when I moved to the private sector and was also perhaps instrumental in my decision to leave the safe public sector career in preference to a risky private sector career and later the more risky entrepreneurial career.
Even now as an entrepreneur, I am also confronted with the ills of the society I see around me and have to often raise my voice of dissent against the establishment as a Netizen Activist making “Na” a part of my character without my even realizing it.
However, when I often consider whether “Being Diplomatic” is essential for career growth, I have always felt that “Being myself” and being committed to certain principles of life which I consider are good for every human being, is more important than working for career growth through hypocritical and selfish principles. This often gets reflected in my blog postings both here as well as in other blogs on politics
If in the process, “Naavi” gets an image of “A Person who always says No to injustice”, it is fine even if it is not always a good commercial decision. Perhaps after the Dainik Bhaskar campaign, what remains in the minds of people is the word “Na” which could become more familiar to people. Just as David Cameroon popularized the term “Na’Vi” through his film Avatar, I hope the Dainik Bhaskar campaign may popularize the phrase “Na.”
As long as people only remember the phrase “Na”, identify me with the “Na” brigade in the positive sense and my customers donot say “Na” to “Naa-Vi”, the “Na” image should be fine!
Naavi
