Prantik Sinha, Co-founder and Director of Agastya Buoyant Pvt. Ltd. is an ardent supporter of No Sir No Madam cause. Agastya Buoyant incorporates ancient texts to design complex inflatable products. They have gained expertise in design and development of inflatables for different kinds of applications in India.
Prantik is a graduate in mechanical engineering. Furthermore, he has received his master’s degree in fluid science. Prantik is passionate about teaching and aims on making education a more desirable field for career seekers.
He states — At Agastya, we heed to No Sir No Madam ideology. I always address my employees by their first-name. Subsequently, I have informed them as well, that they have to refer me and my peers by our first-names. Some of them use the word ‘dada’, a Bengali word, to greet us out of affection. I believe a salutation less workplace culture instills equality and mutual respect.
On the other hand, he unabashedly, displays discomfort towards ‘Sir/Madam’ culture. Prantik narrates, “The Britishers imposed salutation edict onto us to treat us like slaves. We still continue to cling to it because we fancy being addressed with a salutation. It is considered a part of being superior. I remember, while working for social cause, I had to meet some activists, who were my college seniors. I was really uncomfortable as I had to greet them with a salutation.”
In India, while addressing an individual, we waste time on revering him or her with various salutations. Likewise, the government sector, employees have also been following ‘Sir/Madam’ culture to honor themselves. Prantik expresses — I always met the bureaucrats with a formal greeting as I do not want my work to be delayed by them.
Similarly, many people in India respect the cops out of fear. I remember in the movie ‘Singham’, Ajay Devgn said that police was for the safety of people. Hence, we do not need to be afraid of them and bow to them with formal titles like ‘Sir’. However, the reality is different.
Years of being addressed as ‘Sir/Madam’ has given them the authority to exploit citizens. Thus, people address them with a salutation only because they are scared of them.
In addition, he remarks about blue-collar workers, who have no option than to bow them down to salutation edict. Prantik opines — we should free them of such unnecessary traditions. In fact, we should work on forming a better relation with them and reek the benefits together.
“ I remember, when I had initially started my firm, I was not able to pay my employees’ salary for the first few months. I was touched to see that they continued to work with me without ever complaining about it. I suppose, this happened only because I treat them as equal and instill a sense of belonging to the firm in them.”
Inculcating the first-name habit is a lot easier when instilled in kids than adults. Therefore, Pratik suggests teaching students from their early schooling days about No Sir No Madam cause. Moreover, he also emphasizes on the role of parents.
He voices, “Kids stay with their parents since their birth. They tend to pick up habits that their parents do. As a result, the personality and mannerisms of a child, depend hugely on how the parents behave.”
In conclusion, Prantik quotes, “It is never too late to start a change towards a right cause. We should first change ourselves and imbibe No Sir No Madam ideology into ourselves and then preach it to others.”
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