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07:50 AM
Bikram Vohra
JournalismPakistan.com
March 31, 2013
Not too far down the road a man would cheerfully have shoved a sword up his solar plexus before breaking his word. Honor was everything and life was mere bagatelle in comparison to losing it.
What is your word worth today? I am listening to these 'now' generation, all these young people and they are sneering at the very idea of believing in anyone's word.
Not worth the 'paper' it is spoken on, if you get the drift.
Get it in writing, whatever you do; this word of honor stuff is for the birds.
In one generation a slide from an officer and a gentleman to turning a person's word into a gambit, a ploy in the game of life. All it does is buy time from the truly gullible.
Whole tribes, nations bed rocked their values on the word. Once given, it had to be maintained regardless of the consequences or the price.
Is the education we have given, this full fat, full cream feed that produces a world of distrusting cynics?
What price a man who cannot keep his word. Let him be rich, let him be famous, he is nothing, he'll always be nothing, so, okay, we shall soldier on and simply treat him with the contempt he deserves.
I was let down, taken for a ride, given the old heave ho, cheated, conned, you get the drift.
The story comes up between common friends and this is what they say:
What, you don't have it in writing, what are you, a moron?
Can you believe this guy, listen to this, folks, our man Vohra, he shook hands on it, you shook hands on it, and you thought that was enough, you think this is the movies, that chap must be laughing himself into a spasm.
You mean you have nothing, not one line in writing, look, don't get me wrong, friend, but you deserve to get rooked, this is 2013, the guy doesn't even have a lousy contract.
Did you at least have a fax, Email, some piece of paper, this is rich, you trusted him, because you had good times together once, so that is reason to trust him?
Stuff like that, suddenly it is my fault I kept the faith. Wrongly, perhaps, but we must all have our illusions and a word given is one of mine.
(The writer is a Senior Editorial Advisor of Khaleej Times and the paper’s former Editor. He has also been the Editor of Gulf News, Gulf Today, Emirates Today and Bahrain Tribune)
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