Many a times we all have gone into a situation when we realise that we could have stick to our decision and not said ‘Yes’, for a ‘No’. Many a times, due to emotional and compulsive pressure, we reluctantly decided to say ‘Yes’, for a certain ‘No’.
I remember an incident that taught me a lesson.
I was travelling from Udaipur to Delhi by road with few of my office colleagues to attend a last moment meeting. Since the flight from Udaipur to Delhi were then very limited, the only choice we had was to travel by road. Since it was the month of September, Udaipur was experiencing heavy rains as well.
We decided to hire a private taxi – an Innova. The taxi came with a young driver and my sixth sense was not comfortable. It appeared as if he might have got the licence recently. I could judge his driving skills as well, since I already had an experience of driving for more than 20 years then.
My heart was not comfortable with the driver. I was thinking of delaying the travel and call for an experienced driver. We had to travel a distance of about 700 kilometres, which would take about 12-14 hours, and heavy rains were also supposed to create enough trouble.
Reluctantly, we started our journey.
Everyone became busy in talking but my eyes remained glued to the driver. He was conscious and stressed – I could feel this instantly.
Suddenly, a speeding car passed by his side and he desperately turned left. On the Left was a two-wheeler with a family, and this driver missed seeing them. I immediately shouted – “See left and keep the steering straight”. The two-wheeler some-how escaped accident. The driver again immediately turned the vehicle to right side and then kept it straight. Few cars trying to overtake from right side also applied brakes. It was a near miss for all of us. It was like touching death and then letting it go.
There was complete silence in the car. We all got extremely scared. We had hardly travelled 50 kilometres from Udaipur and my apprehension about the driving skills of this driver were proving to be right. We realised that calling a new driver would take another 2 hours. What to do now was the question.
I finally decided to put my foot down, called the travel agency and asked for an immediate replacement of the driver. The agency person tried his level best to convince me, but I did not agree. Finally, an experienced driver was arranged, and we could start our journey once again.
While we all were waiting for the driver to arrive, I went into the conversation with this current driver – just to relax him and make him feel fine.
He informed me that though he has been driving for last few years, this is the first time he is driving Innova – which is a much bigger vehicle. Since no driver was available, and you had to urgently leave, the owner had sent him for the duty. He was quite reluctant also, as it was raining and he knew the distance to be covered was a long one. But the owner did not listen to him and he could not say ‘No’ to him.
On one side the driver could not say ‘No’ to the owner of the travel agency, and on the other side, I also could not say ‘No’ to my fellow passengers. The third culprit was the agency, who said ‘Yes’, when he should have also said ‘No’, for the non-availability of a long-distance driver.
We all were at fault and this had risked lives of at least 7 people.
In office also, there is a popular saying – if you work hard and you would be given more work as a reward! The issue comes, when in the given team, you are unable to deliver additional load of work. Once efficient, you suddenly become inefficient. Had you said – No – for a – Yes – things would have been different.
In our families too, do we accept – No – from our children? We feel insulted and then we pressurise them to agree to what we want – “Say Yes”.
Weather out of fear or favour, we have got into this habit of accepting whatever is thrown on us.
There is no doubt that not all decisions that we take are wrong – maximum might prove to be absolutely correct as well. But few wrong decisions have the potential to create enough damage. I am only asking to assess and think wisely and then take the call. There is always a learning in each incident.
For me, whenever I am confused in such situations, I rely on Bholenath – and I get my directions.