Recently I had to visit a hospital in one of the rural cities. It has always been a pleasure to return to a simpler and healthier life of villages. This time around though, there was an undertone of worry because of the hospital visit. My uncle who was a patient there, was hooked up to a slew of medical machines continuously monitoring his vitals. It is difficult to describe in words what I felt when I saw one of the toughest and fiercest person I know hooked up to all those wires, unable to utter a few sentences.
In the afternoon it was time for him to take his juice. The bed in the ICU was an automated one which will tilt the upper half so that the patient is in the sitting position. The sister there pressed the button to activate the mechanism but after two three presses we realized that there was no electricity and hence we couldn't get the patient in sitting position. Since my uncle is a well built village man, two of us had to support him to make him sit on the bed. I was afraid of doing something wrong in his fragile state. My aunt then helped him finish a cup of apple juice which took 10 minutes. The monitoring equipments was working on inverters and were increasingly making more noises which was adding to my anxiety. After the whole 'lunch' we carefully laid him down to rest.
I have always felt proud to be associated with a company which actually touches the life of almost every person in a meaningful way. Although I didn't see any GE equipment in the ICU, I am sure that a trip to the X-ray department would have definitely shown me a GE imaging machine. But that day while exiting the ICU, I felt little ashamed. There was no rational reason for that feeling but I felt that there has to be something that I should have done. We in GE Power equip 90% of power transmission utilities worldwide through our technology. But that afternoon it was still not enough to make a patient sit on his bed. It wasn't enough to shield the loved ones from watching a family member in that fragile state. And it would have definitely not been enough for the countless in general wards across the country with no electricity to operate even a ceiling fan in the unbearable heat. As a company we do great things but as an individual what can we do to improve this situation? The shame that I felt was because I knew that I could do some things on a personal level which I might not be doing because I don't care enough.
We are educated enough to know to switch off lights when we don't need it, to remember to switch off electrical equipment when leaving the house. To use ACs or any other equipment when we really need it. To not waste water for petty reasons. We all know this, but not all of us follow this because we don't really care. It's not that we do it intentionally with malice but the simple fact is that most of us have never really been at the receiving side enough, to register the gravity of these simple acts. Some of us feel that the 'comfort' of a running fan while sleeping no matter the season, or keeping the AC at the lowest possible setting and then using blankets while sleeping, or any other quirks that people have is their hard earned right. After slogging through days and nights in corporate jungle, they just want to relax and not worry about these nitpicks. And after all what difference does it make if one person leaves the AC on to precool the room? I have no valid argument here. They have earned the money through their hard work and there's nothing wrong in 'treating' yourself. For some people some quirks have become habits which is nigh impossible to change or get rid of. I might be having some of these too and it's difficult to see them as 'harming' someone. But I know that after that afternoon, I simply can't continue to do so.
Once I had watched a show on some DD channel which showed the immense creativity and ingenuity of people from villages to solve some of the issues which they face related to farming. During all my formal education I never imagined the things that some of these guys did without any formal education. And then one of the lines that the anchor said explained why. He said that for any invention to happen you need empathy. If you can feel the pain, the problem, the suffering that your customer (in their case that was themselves) is feeling then you have passed the biggest hurdle in inventing anything. You can't just sit on the sidelines and passively keep on watching, but you will do something in your capacity to make that pain go away. This is true for an individual like us or a big company like GE. I might not be able to invent anything new or game-changing for the countless villagers of our country who face electricity and water shortage, but I think I feel enough of their pain to use electricity and water judiciously so that it reaches someone who needs it as much as me if not more.
So let us come together and look from their perspective, judge our actions, improve upon our habits and do small things to achieve small feats, like helping a patient to drink a cup of juice.
I know this has been a little depressing, so I will leave you with some of the pictures that I took to compensate for the dreary mood.
In the afternoon it was time for him to take his juice. The bed in the ICU was an automated one which will tilt the upper half so that the patient is in the sitting position. The sister there pressed the button to activate the mechanism but after two three presses we realized that there was no electricity and hence we couldn't get the patient in sitting position. Since my uncle is a well built village man, two of us had to support him to make him sit on the bed. I was afraid of doing something wrong in his fragile state. My aunt then helped him finish a cup of apple juice which took 10 minutes. The monitoring equipments was working on inverters and were increasingly making more noises which was adding to my anxiety. After the whole 'lunch' we carefully laid him down to rest.
I have always felt proud to be associated with a company which actually touches the life of almost every person in a meaningful way. Although I didn't see any GE equipment in the ICU, I am sure that a trip to the X-ray department would have definitely shown me a GE imaging machine. But that day while exiting the ICU, I felt little ashamed. There was no rational reason for that feeling but I felt that there has to be something that I should have done. We in GE Power equip 90% of power transmission utilities worldwide through our technology. But that afternoon it was still not enough to make a patient sit on his bed. It wasn't enough to shield the loved ones from watching a family member in that fragile state. And it would have definitely not been enough for the countless in general wards across the country with no electricity to operate even a ceiling fan in the unbearable heat. As a company we do great things but as an individual what can we do to improve this situation? The shame that I felt was because I knew that I could do some things on a personal level which I might not be doing because I don't care enough.
We are educated enough to know to switch off lights when we don't need it, to remember to switch off electrical equipment when leaving the house. To use ACs or any other equipment when we really need it. To not waste water for petty reasons. We all know this, but not all of us follow this because we don't really care. It's not that we do it intentionally with malice but the simple fact is that most of us have never really been at the receiving side enough, to register the gravity of these simple acts. Some of us feel that the 'comfort' of a running fan while sleeping no matter the season, or keeping the AC at the lowest possible setting and then using blankets while sleeping, or any other quirks that people have is their hard earned right. After slogging through days and nights in corporate jungle, they just want to relax and not worry about these nitpicks. And after all what difference does it make if one person leaves the AC on to precool the room? I have no valid argument here. They have earned the money through their hard work and there's nothing wrong in 'treating' yourself. For some people some quirks have become habits which is nigh impossible to change or get rid of. I might be having some of these too and it's difficult to see them as 'harming' someone. But I know that after that afternoon, I simply can't continue to do so.
Once I had watched a show on some DD channel which showed the immense creativity and ingenuity of people from villages to solve some of the issues which they face related to farming. During all my formal education I never imagined the things that some of these guys did without any formal education. And then one of the lines that the anchor said explained why. He said that for any invention to happen you need empathy. If you can feel the pain, the problem, the suffering that your customer (in their case that was themselves) is feeling then you have passed the biggest hurdle in inventing anything. You can't just sit on the sidelines and passively keep on watching, but you will do something in your capacity to make that pain go away. This is true for an individual like us or a big company like GE. I might not be able to invent anything new or game-changing for the countless villagers of our country who face electricity and water shortage, but I think I feel enough of their pain to use electricity and water judiciously so that it reaches someone who needs it as much as me if not more.
So let us come together and look from their perspective, judge our actions, improve upon our habits and do small things to achieve small feats, like helping a patient to drink a cup of juice.
I know this has been a little depressing, so I will leave you with some of the pictures that I took to compensate for the dreary mood.
Yes ur correct....24×7 electricity is the need of the time nowadays.. we all can provide an inverter at such hospitals which they can use at the time of immergency.
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