Monday — Afternoon
I have a meeting in the company of my employer over lunch with executives of a multinational company. The company is a client of my employer. We are discussing issues relating to certain approvals that we need to obtain from some government departments for the client. My employer informs the executives that we need to take some extraconstitutional measures to speed up the process of approvals. The executives tell my employer that since their company is multinational, they are bound by the code of ethics which their principal has mandated to be observed in India. The code prohibits them from taking any extra-constitutional measures. I suggest to my employer that we could ourselves take the extra-constitutional measures and get reimbursed for the cost by way of higher fees that the multinational company may pay. My suggestion is not only accepted by all, but also appreciated. I rise in esteem in the eyes of everybody.
At night I wonder how come I could think of a suggestion I should have never been able to think of, given my nature. I am glad that I helped the executives observe their code. I learnt the lesson that it is possible to maintain moral standards through immoral means.
Tuesday — Morning
I am accompanying a senior tax counsel in the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal. My employer has asked me to accompany the counsel, which was a reward for my brilliant suggestion that I made yesterday. Our client has engaged the counsel to argue a matter before the ITAT. Besides being a reward, my visit to the ITAT was necessary since I had worked as a lower-level income-tax authority. I am more aware of the facts than the counsel. That is the reason my employer has asked me to accompany the counsel, so that I can give my inputs on the facts, if required.
I am sitting just behind the Departmental Representative (DR). I start discussing the case with our counsel. The counsel snubs me for revealing the line of arguments that we are going to take, lest the DR should overhear and frame his strategy accordingly. I become silent. The members arrive in the Court Room. When our case is called out, the counsel stands up and makes an impressive presentation. I know he maintains silence about certain crucial facts. Then the DR makes his submissions. The members find themselves in an utterly confused state as regards the facts and decide to restore the matter back to the AO. Our counsel marches out of the Court room in a victorious manner.
At night
All along I had read and was taught that counsels are officers of the Court and counsels from both sides to a litigation are supposed to assist judges deliver justice. I always thought that everybody’s including the litigants’ interest was best served when justice was done. I always thought there was no winning or losing in a Court; it was all about securing justice. It is always justice that should emerge victorious in any Court, or so I thought. I thought justice could be secured by being transparent. Then, why did the counsels frame strategies and keep them from the other side? A case which would have been brought to a closure was restored back only because the counsels from both the sides did not assist the judges properly. I also suspect my counsel wanted the case go back to the officer for reasons best known to him. If that was so, he has succeeded in his attempt.
I now know it is all about winning and losing in courts. It is a battle in Court without conventional weapons. It is less about justice and more about winning. I learnt that there is no absolute justice.
I take a mild tranquilizer and go to sleep.
Wednesday — Morning
I am asked by my employer to appear before a government official. I go to his office. There are others waiting to meet the same officer. I overhear them talking that the officer is very upright. My heart gladdens to hear that. Perhaps it is my skepticism. I always take the stories of upright officer incredulously.
The usher asks me to go in. I find the officer upright. He tells me that I could not expect certain reliefs we had sought. I am also convinced that the law on this issue was against us. I give up and prepare to stand up. He then requests me to find out if my client could arrange for his son a distributorship of some products that my client manufactures. I nod in affirmation. He then suggests a way out for the relief that I had sought. I could modify our application for relief in a particular manner so that it would fall in a certain category, so as to enable him to grant relief we wanted. I agree to do so and leave.
At night I am glad to discover today that methods of grafts come in a variety of ways. I get a better sleep than I have had the two previous nights.
Thursday — Noon
I am at a seminar where my employer is the guest speaker. He has just finished his presentation. He is hugely applauded and I am proud to have an enlightened employer, though my heart tells me that he has created more issues in his presentation than he has answered.
We break for lunch. There is a murmur among the participants. Most of them find themselves more confused than they were in the morning. I see my employer with a dish in his hands, surrounded by such ignoramuses. They are trying to extract answers to some of the issues my employer has thrown in the presentation. My employer seems to be asking those people to come to his chamber.
At night I wonder whether my employer really possessed answers to those issues. I thought it was wise to believe in his prowess rather than be counted among ignoramuses. I also learnt that professionalism is not being true to one’s self; it is being true to others’ selves. Give answers what others want; not what you believe to be true.
I have a really sound sleep.
Friday — about 1.00 p.m.
There is an agitation organised by a professional body of which my employer and I are members. The agitation is against corruption. The agitation is planned for an hour post lunch. We all colleagues and my employer reach the venue of the agitation. I find in the melee those executives of the multinational company I had met on Monday, and the honest government officer. We all march with caps on our head and placards in our hands with anti-graft slogans from Gateway of India to the Taj Hotel. Our march ends there. I notice that those executives have vanished into the Taj Hotel. I do not know why. I had seen pangs of hunger on their face when they were walking in the march.
At night
I learnt today that everybody has the right to protest against corruption no matter who he is. I am happy I am growing wiser and wiser day by day. People around me also tell me that I show a good amount of maturity in my approach. They tell me that I am practical.
My days of slumber are over. I have deep sleep more so thinking that the next day is a Saturday.
Saturday — Day
I have nothing to write today. Office is closed. I will miss the opportunity of getting still wiser. I am surprised at my appetite for learning things every day.
I now bask in the glory of the knowledge of being a man who is wise, matured, and of all the things, ‘practical’. At night Only sound sleep.
