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Sunday, September 25

Dignity

Babo was the Minister’s personal driver, a dark small boned short Indian man with a permanent smile that glittered his face. He was the big guy in the Ministry (sayig elwazeer, wazeer), full of confidence and everybody would hush when Babo was around since he was very close to the Minister.

But unlike “the Undersecretary” position which is almost always a permanent one, the Minister’s term ended and as a result Babo was transferred to my department to take a bellboy’s position; the lowest rank at the mercy of all the employees in the department, and as a result Babo lost his car and his smile.

It took a long time for Babo to get readjusted; before his transfer every one treated him as if he was the Minister and now they just ordered him around, Babo lost his dignity.

I knew that this was not Babo’s job, he was a driver with over twenty yeas of experience in handling inside and outside liaisons; he almost knew all the key personnel in all other government sectors and he knew how to handle document flow which was and still is the biggest problem facing government sectors where a lot of important documents are lost due to mishandling paper flow. The new Minister that transferred him did not test his capabilities and his credentials, he did not need to, he brought his own staff and Babo became just another head that he wanted to discard.

A while after his transfer I promised Babo to give him his position back and to assign him as my personal driver, I could not give him that responsibility until I accommodated the department with his replacement as a bellboy.
And I was up to my promise, Babo became my personal driver and he restored his old position, his car, his smile and most importantly his dignity. And mind you; I did not do it for him; I did it because I needed his know-how in his field.

That was twelve yeas back, and whenever I transferred from one department to another, Babo was to transfer with me along with my old-time secretary whom together made a dynamic team I could not have done without.

Babo could never forget this; even now that I quit my job for almost a year, Babo is still offering his services, and for free. He refuses to take a penny from me, his wife Helen cooks and he surprises me with her dishes every once and a while although he can hardly feed his own family. He almost calls four times a week to make sure that I’m OK and still offers his services insisting that I’m still his boss.

TO WIN A PERSON GIVE HIM/HER HIS/HER DIGNITY ……
TO WIN NATIONS GIVE THEM THEIR DIGNITY….

Posted by AyyA:: at :: 12:27 AM::

12 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

mashalla.. what a nice guy :)
allah ykhali inshalla.. ur a good human being for giving him his dignity.. i shall always remember this story int he times i will need to.. thx :)

5:46 AM  
Blogger Purgatory said...

shhh, stop tellinng people about this, how can I rule them if you give them hope!

6:48 AM  
Blogger Jewaira said...

Lol Purgatory.

Ruby I love this little story. It is such a good feeling to help people out when we can. And the emotional rewards justifies any feelings of hesitation that we might have had.

9:46 AM  
Blogger ولاّدة سابقاً ... رانيا السعد ...رانية المنيفي حسب الأوراق الرسمية said...

قصة مؤثرة

الكرامة والحفاظ عليها مفهوم لم يعد شائع في أيامنا...الناس بدأت تهدر كرامتها فما بالك بكرامة الآخرين

10:54 AM  
Blogger 2 Second Club ® said...

I just want to say that the last statement was politically incorrect, you should include "HER" with "HIM", a person could be "HER" as well.. :)

Great story.. :)

12:32 PM  
Blogger AyyA said...

Snooks
I’m glad that you learned something from this story

Purgy
You loved it; I can see that much LOL

Lady J
The self satisfaction and the emotional reward are immeasurable.

Princess
How true and how sad

The one and only Don
Oooooops, how did I ever could have made that mistake, OK, I’ll fix it

12:53 PM  
Blogger AyyA said...

Hi Chris and welcome aboard, I visited your blog but unfortunately my lack of German language did not help much in understanding you, LOL, nevertheless; I liked some of your photos very much, and surely will return to see some more, I’m just getting started in that hobby and I have a link to them on the side that says “ my photos” you are welcome to check them out.

1:11 PM  
Blogger Elegance said...

Respect is a double-face currency. Treat people with respect and they'll treat you the same.
Pergatory: Why don't you rule sheep? or maybe bees to get some honey?

4:53 PM  
Blogger shosho said...

That's very touching ayya


|MMM|
(*^_^*) --> my ayya crowned

6:07 PM  
Blogger AyyA said...

Elegance
Right you are

Shoshowah
7abeebti wallah

11:44 PM  
Blogger Misguided said...

Dear Ayya,

What a Beautiful story of human kindness. Thanks for sharing.

Truly,
Misguided

P.S. Do you realize I have to type this word verification. "LUFF BRA" ? I know it may seem immature.. but I can't help but giggle at the word bra.

Look see

1:52 AM  
Blogger AyyA said...

Misguided
If you know how much I hate Bra’s, you’d really understand why I cracked up reading your comment; it should have been “offbra” LOL

4:22 PM  

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