The weak can never forgive.
Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. -
Mahatma Gandhi
TMOD, toastmasters and guests a very good
morning!
Introduction:
~~~~~~~~~~
Sudha Murthy is Infosys Narayana Murthy's wife
and a back bone behind the success of the great organization. Apart from her
technical skills, she is one of the most famous writers of our time. I am going
to talk about one of her stories where she shares her experience forgiving her
student and being forgiven by her boss.
Story 1:
~~~~~~
Sudha Murthy was teaching computer science in a
college. One day she prepared a very tough program for the students to work
out. Infact it took 1 week for her to write that program. The students could
not come up with the solution so she gave the floppy disk where she had the
problem saved to one of her students Nalini and said "Copy it in your
computer and return it back. I don’t have a backup of the program. So please be
careful when you copy it." Nalini inserted the floppy and she started
formatting the floppy by mistake. This means that 1 week of the teacher's hard
work has gone to the trash. The girl suddenly realized the blunder she has
committed and started crying. Sudha Murthy was totally upset and angry. It took
five minutes for her to recover from her disappointment. The girl said,
"Sorry mam I didn’t do it on purpose". Then she told the girl,
"None of my students can do such a thing on purpose. Don't worry I have
some notes at home and I can write the program again with the help of my
notes". Now the class became silent and surprised at the cool-headed
teacher. One of the students stood up and asked her, "Mam how were you
able to be cool and forgive Nalini who has committed such a big blunder." She
smiled and said, "Because everyone commits mistakes. Only robots are
perfect. I had been in the same position a few years back and I was forgiven by
my boss. I had learnt such qualities after working with great people like
him." The students forgot all about their tough program and asked eagerly
about the story of her boss and the blunder she had committed.
Story 2:
~~~~~~
Sudha Murthy was working as a system analyst in
a software firm. The company's whole lot of confidential data like employee
details, finances were saved in a memory device called tandon disk drive. It is
a very heavy device weighing about fifteen kgs. Her boss once told her, “This
disk is very heavy. Only men can carry it.” She used to be a feminist those
days and thought women can do everything better than men. Only later she
realized that there are a set of activities men are good at and there are ones’
women can do better. She wanted to prove to her boss that she was strong enough
and in no way, weaker than men. She carried the device all the way to her
boss's cabin. When she was about to place it in his office room, she had
dropped it down and it was shattered into pieces. She just realized that she
had committed the biggest mistake of her life. She could not control her
emotions. The only punishment she could give herself was, to give the
resignation. She quickly started writing the resignation letter and gave it to
her boss. Her boss was very cool. He read the letter carefully and tore it into
pieces. He firmly said, "Before you lifted the device, I had taken a backup
of all the data in it. Never deal with issues emotionally and don’t be too
sensitive. Just go and continue your work".
When she completed the story the students got up
and started clapping for her wonderful boss and their teacher. Then she told
Nalini, “It was my mistake as well because I should have been smart enough like
my boss and taken backup of the program.
Conclusion:
~~~~~~~~~
Inspiring real-life stories are enough to
motivate us to do good. Are we ready to be like Sudha Murthy and her boss to
stay cool and forgive people around us? Let us think of alternatives to come
out of the situation instead of getting upset about other’s mistakes and
lead a happy life.
