I Should Have said ‘NO’, When I Said ‘YES’

Many a times we all have gone into a situation when we realise that we could have stick to our decision and not said ‘Yes’, for a ‘No’.

 We feel disturbingly annoyed when we later realize that we should have said ‘No’ but as could not refuse, so under psychological pressure, said ‘Yes’. There are many instances in every one’s life when the decisions taken, as forcibly advised by others, prove to be wrong.

I was travelling from Udaipur to Jaipur by road in a private taxi. As I was in a hurry, I did not realize that the driver of Innova was a young boy and might not have experience to drive long distances. I could feel that he must have got the licence recently, as he looked just about 20 years. You can actually make out from the body language of the driver as how much confident he is.

My 6th sense was asking me to let the delay happen but call for an experienced driver. The distance was over 450 kilometers and it was to take 7-8 hours to reach Jaipur. My fellow passengers convinced me of the driver’s ability and somehow, though completely uncomfortable, I agreed to sit in the car. My conversation had also made the driver conscious. I could feel that he was nervous now.

 Everyone became busy in talking but my eyes remained glued to his driving. 

 Suddenly, a speeding car passed by his side and he desperately turned left. On the Left was another two-wheeler, travelling with a family in his safe speed and lane. This driver did not see him and was almost about to hit when I shouted, ‘see left’. He again turned the vehicle to right and few cars trying to overtake from right applied immediate breaks.

 We were all scared. We had hardly travelled 50 kilometers and the apprehension that I had about the driving skills of this driver were proving to be right. At this point we were not even close to Udaipur. We realised that calling a new driver will take another 2 hours. What to do now was the question.

 I finally put my foot down and called the travel agency and asked for an immediate change of the driver. The agency person tried his level best to convince but I did not agree. Finally, a driver was arranged and we could start our journey once again.

While we were waiting, I went into the conversation with this driver who informed me that he is driving Innova for the first time and he generally drives a small car. Since no driver was available, he was sent for the duty. He was quite reluctant as he knew the distance to be covered.

On one side the driver could not say ‘No’ to the owner of the travel agency, and agreed by saying ‘Yes’. And on the other side, I also could not say ‘No’ and said ‘Yes’. The third culprit was the agency, who said ‘Yes’ when he should have also said ‘No’ for availability of a trained driver.

 We all were at fault and this had risked the lives of many.

In office also, with the intention of increasing our work-load we keep saying ‘Yes’ to new projects and assignments, not understanding how much time we would be able to give to do justice to this new work.

In our families, we agree to many things when we should have not. We teach our children to be straight but how many of these children have the habit of listening and agreeing to a “No”. They only want everyone to agree and say “Yes”.

 We take a lot of decisions under pressure. A fear prevails of the consequences if we do not agree with others. We become defensive and do not want to be seen as forcing our decision.

 It is true that not all decisions are wrong, but some may prove quite costly.