Hello friends,
hope you are well today.
Keep looking after yourselves, I am hearing some nasty stuff around COVID and how it’s affecting everyone differently.
You know, I’m not sure where I’ve heard this talk of Jeff Bezos, the one where he says they take customers’ complaints seriously. I remember he said something like when things were sent back, he’d take the damaged boxes with him to his meetings so that they could just become better at how they serve.
It’s normal, no one likes to receive complaints but if anything in this world needs to change for the better (not talking about small petty things) then keeping quiet is going to change nothing. Seeing a new agent after you’ve been served by the same people for years, you’re quite in your right to ensure that your affairs get done properly possibly because the cost/consequence of that mistake is something you don’t have time for or can’t afford to be the guinea pig for. It’s not personal I mean we’ve all been trainees at some point in our lives.
Okay, didn’t Mandela complain? Didn’t Gandhi complain? If we’re using the word “complain”. How many people were freed by the word “complain” which have now fallen into the negative label? Isn’t, anyone who works hard to be where they are today complains somewhere and at some point, in their lives? If we’re going to use the word “complain” then how did Jeff Bezos take Amazon so far, how do directors move their companies in a forward momentum? How did the greatest leaders get to where they are or were? How did they impact so many lives? People had to believe in them and their “complaints”.
So, I come back to the 99% and the 1% again. Which one are you? Are you going to become the master of understanding people through their complaints or see it as constructive criticism essential for success or are you just going to wash it off by labelling them as people who have time for silly things, another phrase, negative people? Who’s talking? Ego or humility? I admit some people are unreasonable, and so how do you pick out those who are giving constructive criticism to those who are complaining? See, even I had to use another word for the word “complain” because it’s become so “redundant”. When different people keep repeating the same thing using different words that is constructive criticism. People who have the same belief and feeling then follow one leader who speaks up for all, that’s a union, politics, I don’t know, there are so many names/words … the list goes on.
I took the liberty to find synonyms for the word “complain”. Wow! So many negative words. Let me write out a few,
- Find fault with
- Moan
- Protest
- Grumble
- Whine
- Kick up a fuss
- Kick up a stink
- Natter
- etc.
Now, let’s look at a few synonyms for constructive criticism.
- Advice
- Counsel
- Guidance
- Suggestions
- Views
- Pointers
- Help
- Direction
- etc.
After reading these why do we still call it the “complaints department?” If the word “complain” is so negative, maybe we should change it to “suggestions department?”
Something just hit me when I thought about this topic, I saw a flashback in black and white of Gandhi sitting down and working with salt. I was curious about this flashback and so I put in words in Google’s search engine like this, “Gandhi salt,” and hit enter, then I went, “Oh! Blimey me!” because images of Gandhi’s Salt March came up. You may read about it here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_March , basically, Gandhi led this March in colonial India which was a nonviolent civil disobedience march for 24 days from March 1930 to April 1930, it was a campaign of tax resistance against the British salt monopoly.
The thing is, I don’t know, ever since I was born and became conscious, I saw the majority of the time from the outside that we Hindus were considered as passive people, and I also admit that when I saw the role of the Indian actor that initially caused Judi Dench to go to India because he was just doing his job in the call centre in India in the first movie titled The Great Marigold Hotel a 2011 flick it made me say, really, but it’s true, like many races we’ll do anything to not make waves and stay in a secure place, but somehow we’re just known for that. I just want to change this now, I just want us to change the world by doing what matters, and for me, I really want to give Indian people diverse roles that it no longer looks foreign whether they‘re playing an important role of modern times even if they have to be sitting as a president of USA or Britain or Mars … what the hell. You know a world where no one can say you can’t be that because of your skin colour or nationality or your past. Passive isn’t working, passive just takes too long… just take it seriously why such a big drama and role-play for what is right?
Look, did you know that every living organism on our planet is made of six elements? Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur (CHNOPS). Here’s why What are the ingredients of life?
You know when I came across this topic and noticed how we perceive those who speak up without knowing them, when something is said in a queue, or on public television, accusing, or when someone keeps pressing buttons but no one else knows, just you or a good few. The 99% don’t get it, the 99% would say they’re complaining, but it’s the 1% that gets it, and who are the 1%? The ones who dare, the ones who scare mostly from a place of humility without even knowing it, the ones who risk, the ones who fly… the ones who make it!
Don’t you think speaking up would mean a different future which you keep hoping for that actually becomes a reality for future generations?
Yours sincerely,
T. Dench Patel
Thank you for the comments and support. Thank you for offering to donate if there was a donate button on here. I prefer not to take donations. You can support by purchasing my books (Paperback or Kindle), The South African: True Colours, The South African: Roamer or my children’s book Light. These books can be found on Amazon mainly and other sites in your country.
The audiobook for The South African: True Colours is available on iTunes, Apple and Audible. The South African: Roamer and Light will be released soon.
Note: Do keep referring back to this site as much as possible, as I grow, a more profound perspective may form and so I will always come back to each of these articles to re-evaluate them.
