Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all. I would like to start off this year with one of the most moving news reports that I read today. The link content is reproduced below.

MUMBAI: The annual Economic Times Awards ceremony is usually a celebratory affair, but this year the exuberance was tempered as much by the gathering gloom of an economic depression as the embarrassing taint of the Satyam scandal. But all these preoccupations simply fell away when Karambir Singh Kang walked on stage, shoulders squared but head bowed. 

It was the most inspiring moment of the evening, and its most painful. Almost everyone in the chandeliered hall from well-heeled CEOs to hardened journalists to Oberoi Hotel staff was stung to tears. The silence which suddenly sank on the audience was filled only with fierce applause for the Taj general manager who had lost his wife and sons to the terrorist violence of 26/11 but worked steadily through that anguished night to shepherd his frightened guests to safety. 

Flanked by Taj group CEO Raymond Bickson and Hemant Oberoi in his chef whites, Kang received on behalf of the hotel staff a special award for Corporate Citizen Of the Year, which was shared with the employees of The Oberoi and the Trident, for conducting themselves with incredible heroism and dignity in the four days that their hotels were battered. One media report had fittingly described the staff as human shields between the terrorists bullets and their guests. 

This award was the last to be handed out in an evening where the attacks of November 26 had already been heavily referenced. But when Kang walked onto the stage, the room rose as one and clapped hard and long, as it had for P R S Oberoi and his staff. Many of the CEOs had tears in their eyes and the otherwise stoic Prime Minister found it hard to stop shaking Kang's hand. 

Characteristically, Kang's acceptance speech was free of sentimentalism and any mention of personal loss. He said he was honoured to accept the award on behalf of his "Taj family", a choice of phrase which had a rare poignance. 

"This recognition is not just an honour for the staff of the Taj, but a recognition of the true spirit of India," he said. "For any employee of our hotel, no amount of training could have prepared us for what we went through during those fateful days. They were all ordinary people, be it at the Taj, Trident, CST or Cama Hospitalwith extraordinary courage, who went beyond the call of duty. On behalf of my entire Taj family, I humbly accept this honour. Thank you."