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Last Sunday morning, during my morning walk in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park at Borivli, I decided to buy some ‘tadgolas’ – those juicy small fruits that grow on palm trees! I bought some for me and my family on my way back from the vendor inside the park. Within a few minutes, I saw a couple of monkeys as I usually do at that spot. But this time, they saw me! They began running towards me – one from the front and another from my right side. Immediately, I could see them eyeing the parcel of fruits I was carrying. At once, I realized that they would snatch it away…the plastic bag was flimsy and it would be a matter of moments before the simian offender would successfully pull it away. In order to avoid the impending attack, I threw the plastic bag away and the monkeys chased the bag and helped themselves, as I hurried away.
I turned behind to see if anyone had seen my predicament. Yes, there was this guy, who complimented me for my presence of mind and throwing away the parcel! It all had happened so suddenly that I wished I could take a picture of the monkeys, but then I may have lost something more valuable too…besides it happened all to fast!
So I took another round and came back to take a pic of one eating my tadgola!
The incident reminded me of the recent attempt to frisk away the cash sitting in the books of Satyam Computers Ltd. How different was it from the above cited experience? Wasn’t I thinking my purchase was safe since I had paid for it and that I would be sharing it with my family and not some monkey and his kin and kith? Wasn’t the monkey in the process of executing its plan without even a cursory request to me to handover what it needed? Wasn’t my feeling of security just a myth and wasn’t this monkey showing it to me in galloping glory that it wasn’t? What would happen if I had to complain about the monkey to the park authorities? Would they not tell me that there was no legal recourse to monkeys stealing fruits in the park – that there weren’t sufficient provisions in the law to protect me from monkey attacks? Wouldn’t I feel that “Ok, this one was not destined for my tummy?” And say “Daane Daane pe likha hai khanewale ka naam”.., which means, every grain bears the name of the person destined to eat it!
The small investors’ plight is no better. The management planned to ‘di-worse-ify’ into hitherto unrelated areas and defraud individual investors for the benefit of the promoters and projects taken up by the promoter’s sons. Misplaced feelings of security in equity and professional management can result in the same loss or theft. Wouldn’t you be holding dud shares, while the contents – the cash sitting in the books - have been wiped out surreptitiously?
The two incidents have several dissimilarities too. For one, human beings are supposed to be civilized and not expected to behave like simians living in forests. Secondly, you have trusted the management to take care of your fruits of labor - the amounts involved are huge probably part of your lifetime savings not just a snacking fruit for a Sunday morning. Moreover thankfully they could not pull it off due to the uproar in the media! The only regret was that the merged entity “Satyam-Maytas” would have been a perfect palindrome!
But individual investors suffered anyway – from the loss due to the fall in the share prices on the stock market as global investors lost confidence in the management of the company. Finally I thanked god for not having invested in Satyam shares. For if I did, I would have to say “Aane aane pe likha hai paanewale ka naam”, which means, every anna (an old 6-paisa coin) bears the name of who will earn it! (My own coinage!...there he goes again!)
As I write this post, CNN IBN is announcing the ban imposed by World Bank on the company on account of data theft, bribery and god-knows-what-else!Which is why I said at the very beginning,
“Just to prove Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution wrong, several humans are making rapid progress in the opposite direction”
As I turned back to go, with the thoughts of betrayal of trust on part ot the Satyam management, I saw a grazing young deer cross the road peacefully in front of me. It walked slowly unmindful of me approaching it. Trust the innocent young deer to show its faith in me. The grown up ones always scamper away when they see me coming! Dear deer!
