A twine that connects

28.08.2010

I had the opportunitty to address the Finance Executives of Ma Foi-Randstaad. Their CFO Mr. Sai Prasanna made this beautiful comment about Finance.

"Finance is the twine that connects the various functional departments of a company together like a garland or necklace."

The metaphor is quite interesting and takes me to the VII Chapter of the Bh. Gita where Brahman interweaving all-pervasive force that ties up all creation is compared to the sootra or string that keeps the beads of a necklace together.

The earlier speaker was a Chartered Accountant and Director Deloitte who spoke about Security and Governance. He was accompanied by Mr. Matti B Rao who is known to me as BK Rao or simply BK. BK and I go a long way back to 1989-91 when we were both Junior

Officers or JOs in Price Waterhouse (There was no Coopers then!). We have spent many happy times on audit at Coonoor, N. Delhi and elsewhhere. There was even one occasion when we came back late from an audit in coonoor to the mess. The mess was almost closed and they had very little food and only one banana leaf on which they could serve! BK and I were famished and decided to use a single leaf! Both of us are Brahmins and our early conditioning had made it very difficult to share the same leaf; so we got into a tacit understanding that at no cost will we allow our respective food to spill over to the other's side! This is the bonding we have. As can be seen both of us have grown in stature from those early days in PWH! :-)

Who are your True Friends?

Who are our true friends? Are they the ones who comfort us when we fail and use facile and pleasing words to justify our inability? Or are they the ones who are blunt and matter of fact in pointing out to us where we went wrong even at the cost of bruising our ego and sometimes the friendship? As usual, I have no answers except to say that the True Friend strikes the Golden Mean of Aristotle. He is not rude but he is firm. He doesn’t ignore our faults and failures but doesn’t rub our noses in them either.

I used to be a friend who was blunt and rude in pointing out flaws. Then I realized that this was a great way of losing friendship! Today, I am polite and careful while speaking my mind to a friend about his decision or action. I am gentle and try advocacy rather than brute force and argument. Still, I feel sometimes friends should not venture opinions unless asked to do so.

But, when I need good counsel, I seek out those who can be blunt and clear with me. Like the surgeon who wields a sharp instrument to cure, these good friends use their words to guide me on the paths of wisdom, righteousness and achievement that is truly fulfilling.