Live Example of Positive Contribution

(‘Citizen’ experience from SBLC, Nungambakkam, Chennai - 11.12.2009)


The second day of the ‘Citizen SBI’ programme, co-facilitated by me and Shri. Ramanathan at SBLC, Nungambakkam began at 9.30 in the morning on 11 th Dec. We had three participants short and were doing the recap of the first day’s inputs waiting for them. Then one of them rushed in to tell me that it would take some more time for the three to come to the class as they were attending to an accident case in the ground floor of the SBLC.
Handing over the facilitation proceedings to my colleague, I went to the ground floor to see what was happening and why the three participants were held up. I could see another participant for the same programme, (but held in a different wing of the SBLC) was sitting in a chair with his arms, legs cheek bones, etc bleeding and was being attended to by the three participant of my class. On enquiry it was revealed that on his way to the SBLC in a two wheeler, he met with an accident and fell into a ditch. Luckily there was no fracture but the person had lots of bruises. Out of the three persons who were trying to give first aid to the injured staff there was one participant by name Dr. R Mala, our Bank’s medical officer attached to Chennai Main branch and also deputed to attend the ‘Citizen SBI’ programme. She immediately sprung into action, checked the injured staff and ruled out any fracture. On enquiry she came to know that the staff was also a diabetic and immediately ordered the canteen staff to provide him some food before administering any medicine. Not many knew that she was a physician (in the absence of normal white coat and a stethoscope round the neck) and took her to be another participant from some branch and were even telling her not to interfere and rush the person to a nearby hospital. But Dr. Mala was unperturbed and handled the situation calmly by ordering for some injection and medicines from the nearby pharmacy. By the time the medicines arrived the person had also had some food and was ready for the treatment. She gave injections and tablets to the injured staff and also assured him not to worry much as the injuries were only external. It was decided to send the participant home for taking rest and another of the three participants volunteered to accompany him to his house.
It was almost 10.15 AM when the three entered the class. Others in the class were not aware of the incident in the ground floor and were thinking that the three had arrived late due to some usual traffic related problems of Chennai city. When I shared with the class of what had happened and how Dr. Mala deftly handled the situation while treating the injured colleague, the whole class erupted into a thunderous applause in appreciation of her service as well as that of two other colleagues.
As the applause was dying down one of the participants in the class remarked “this is what is called Positive Contribution”. How true it was! The three could have played their ‘routine duty’ role of a trainee by being in the class at 09.30 AM. But they chose to be different resulting in exhibiting the ‘Positive Contribution’ traits of
· Spirit of Excellence
· Spirit of Service & Human Concern
The participants were also in praise of Dr. Mala, as later in the day she reeled out the names of all the 28 of her classmates by identifying each person correctly. When asked about how she developed this kind of memory she said “I have developed this kind of remembering names of people right from my early days. Basic thing is that I am interested in ‘people’ and I see how their faces glow when I call them by their names. Every human being wants recognition and if that is done by remembering his / her name nothing like that. Your base for ‘inter-personal’ relationships is laid strongly by this.” On hearing this ‘trade secret’ from Dr. Mala, the class once again erupted in cheers.
One thing is sure. As facilitator, if I am a keen ‘process observer’ I can draw lots of examples for the programme from our own participants and their actions. ‘Live’ examples reinforce learning much faster than any video film.


S R Raghunath - Facilitator ( Chennai Circle)