Make the World Your Oyster

(Published in Banking Services Chronicle February 2007)

We have often heard of complaints being made regarding how public money is abused when dignitaries travel. Stories abound about how our ministers and bureaucrats love to take refreshing breaks from the scorching summer of India and journey to cooler climes abroad. But remember behind every abuse is a well-intentioned use. The principle behind travel is a discreet one: exposure opens your eyes and prompts you to wiser actions.

In fact, mobility is to a large extent necessary for success. The grand success of the United States of America stands testimony to this. Closer home, Bihar is a poor state but Biharis excel in whatever they do when they venture out. Traditionally, the Sindhis and the Marwaris owe their business acumen largely to their mobility.

Technocrats and professionals of the modern era understand this phenomenon. They keep on moving from one company to another from time to time. This serves as a means of education not only for the immigrant individual but also for the business house that takes them in. As children, most of us have undergone this educative experience when some uncle of ours would come for a while from a faraway place and share with us what he had explored.

Being confined to our holes deprives us of the light outside. We tend to be complacent. If we reign in hell, we begin to glorify it. “The angels in hell are laden with comforts and lead a monotonous life. We deserve the real applause for we have to struggle to contend with odds stacked against us.” This kind of thinking can be termed at worst as fuzzy logic and at best as rationalisation.

If ever you begin to think in these terms, it’s high time you bade goodbye to your present surrounding. And in case that is not feasible, take time out to make a brief tour. Or, at least, be e-mobile. The Internet is a good way to be in touch with the world.

Make the world your oyster. Or else the oyster will be your world.