We often hear the saying that the quality of a product is directly related to its price, implying that the higher the price the better the quality. Suppose we are asked at what price we would be ready to sell our character or soul I wonder what each of us would want to reply.
Many of our fellow humans are prepared to trade their souls for a very little price. You just have to look around your office, your neighborhood or any government office for that matter and you will realize that there are umpteen out there who are ready to sell their character and soul for a song.
I worked in a local co-operative bank in Hyderabad for a period of almost 20 years during the years 1985-2004. The bank had a checkered history of over 85 years. When I joined in the year 1985 the governing body of the bank consisted of decent and honest citizens who valued the principles of honesty and simplicity. In fact I saw one director who used to come by bicycle to attend the board meetings. The Chairman of the bank was a very simple person and you would not even be aware of his presence as he would quietly walk by you. The Board Meetings were concluded with simple cost and refreshments served were tea and biscuits!!!
Things soon changed since the year 1987 and a couple of new members gate crashed into the Board of Directors who belonged to a different breed altogether. Soon we saw a culture of corruption engulfing the organization. The decent members of the governing body chose to leave and their places were filled up with people who believed that amassing wealth should be the only motto of life. The Board, the CEO and the Union leader became a caucus of sorts and started a lending system on a cut or percentage basis. The union leader became a stooge and mercenary of the management and started harassing honest and straightforward employees instead of standing up for them. Life became difficult for people with honesty and principles. The employees who believed in their own self interest rather than any values joined hands with the union and management and secured their own futures by taking easy loans and making money in whatever way possible.
There were however a certain section of employees who believed in earning only honest money. The choice for honest people like us was clear. Either we choose to safeguard our character and be willing to suffer or choose to barter our character to make easy money. It was tough going to a section of honest people like us who valued character and principles. But nevertheless there were quite a few of my colleagues who like myself chose a life style of simple hand to mouth existence rather than surrender our honesty and principles
Due to the liberalization policy since the year 2000 a number of new single unit co-operative banks started sprouting up all over the state and the country. The majority of them were filled with corrupt Directors managing them. It just needed a trigger for a catastrophe in the sector. One by one most of the co-operative banks in Andhra Pradesh started collapsing. There was a run on the bank in the month of March 2003 and the bank got into a liquidity crisis and soon landed into a moratorium and liquidation stage. I resigned in the middle of July 2004 and joined another organization. Fortunately for the depositors the loans were subsequently recovered as the assets which were immovable properties appreciated in value and the borrowers repaid their dues. The depositors got the monies back but after a long wait.
