In India everything of some value must be guarded. Be it an office, a residential area, an expensive individual house, your daughters and dogs. Fences are not enough, a guard must also be present.
For long I refused to accept the need for a guard for my office. I couldn't understand how the usual guards could ever defend the posessions of the company. Most of the guards seem simply to be taken out of their rural villages and placed before a fence. The uniforms are impeccable, but they usually feel very unsure about everything.
Unfortunately we were victim of a burglary early January this year.
Of course police came and as usual caused a lot of unrest among my employees. All employees were very scared for the harassments which would be their part if the investigation continued. At last I stopped the investigation, because I felt it would do more bad than wrong to the guys.
But of course the pressure on me to take a guard was increased also by my directors.
I came up with the old objections: it costs money and it serves nothing. Yet the pressure continued and even increased.
So did our discussions.
Finally someone said: "But sir, we really need a guard. The reason for it is not guarding your property. The reason is that IF something happens like a burglary, then the guard is responsible and not us. The police will then harass the guard, and we ourselves will be more at ease."
We now have a guard every night for 12 hours. He must be 19yrs old, unarmed, drinks every night a bottle of mineral water, tells me lengthy Hindi stories about his hometown (of which I don't understand anything).
I really hope nothing happens so that he doesn't have to fear the police.
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