My family and its values


Patience is a priceless jewel, said the old Chinese philosopher Confucius. Well, when my family came into existence, they probably chose this jewel over the other…stones. This I say about my maternal family because I rarely had any contact with the paternal one. Two things have always dominated the fortunes of my family- that quality, as I said before, of patience, and politics.
My mother had been married in Maharashtra and had come home to Goa for delivery. When I was born and my father came to seem me, the Goan people decided to agitate over whether Konkani or Marathi should be the state language of Goa and the state’s borders were sealed. So, my father never went back and decided to stay in Goa.

I am not a man of numbers but my mom has around 25 brothers, cousins and all included and all of them are into business. Grocery stores, clothing stores, electrical appliances, modular kitchen showrooms, lathe machines, you name it and one of us will be selling it.  Almost all of my uncles are shop-owners and shops are opened and closed at fixed times. Hence, we place a high premium on discipline. I am the black sheep in my family who has chosen a job and works during afternoon in criminal violation of the afternoon ritual of siesta.

So, business, as we know can be pretty stressful and you can forget some minor things in your daily life while important transactions occupy your mind. So what if the uncle mistakenly locked his servant inside his warehouse? No big deal. We didn’t even think twice when my BITS-educated cousin forgot the keys in our second-floor flat and we called in the fire-brigade to fetch the keys. We are respectable businessmen. We don’t climb on pipes and break into our own homes or waste time figuring out common-sense things when our minds are fully occupied by business and politics. Of course we were fined for troubling the authorities for no reason but money is ’fine’ as long as it is not too much trouble. 

Five of my 25 uncles are into politics, working with various political organisations or parties in responsible positions. The slightest shift in politics can affect our fortunes. So, during family functions, one hears lots of politically correct political talk and gets asked about one’s affiliations. We talk only when necessary and only if it is politically correct. (I am not saying only if it is true)
That is who we are. Businessmen and politicians.  Apart from patience, discipline, and political correctness, all other values are pretty much flexible.

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