In the Uttara Kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana, Rama gives his younger brother Lakshmana an order. “To-morrow, at dawn, O Saumitri, take my chariot with Sumantra as your charioteer,” and, “causing Sita to ascend it, leave her beyond the confines of the kingdom.”
Lakshmana answers tatha iti, so be it, and drives off ramasyajnam anusmaran, remembering Rama’s command. When he returns, he reports: “In accord with your command, O Lord, I left the daughter of Janaka on the banks of the Ganges.”
In 2018 Subhakaran and Dyaram published a study of upward voice, employees speaking up to their managers. It drew on “data from 575 employees representing various technology firms in India.” The authors reported: “Results indicate coworkers upward voice and manager pro-voice behavior to significantly impact employee upward voice.”
Naa maate shasanam. My word is law. In the Telugu films Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) and Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017), this is the creed of the queen mother Sivagami. The Hindi version is Mera vachan hi hai shashan.
On May 22, 2010, Air India Express Flight 812 crashed while landing at Mangalore. The cockpit recorder had “co-pilot Captain HS Ahluwalia” “telling Captain Glusica thrice to go around,” the Deccan Herald reported.
The investigation noted: “Although company SOP empowered the first officer to assume control and discontinue the approach, he did not do so.”
In Karan Johar’s Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001), Yash Raichand, played by Amitabh Bachchan, disowns his adopted son Rahul, played by Shah Rukh Khan, for marrying Anjali, a young woman from Chandni Chowk. The father objects to the difference in class.
In the confrontation with Rahul, the father closes the matter: Keh diya na… bas keh diya! I have said it. That is all.
Rule 3 of the Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964, states: “The direction of the official superior shall ordinarily be in writing. Oral direction to subordinates shall be avoided, as far as possible. Where the issue of oral direction becomes unavoidable, the official superior shall confirm it in writing immediately thereafter.”
The next clause adds that a government servant who has received an oral direction “shall seek confirmation of the same in writing as early as possible.”
In the Mahabharata, the young archer Ekalavya outshines Arjuna, a student of the teacher Drona. Arjuna complains. Drona then asks Ekalavya for his right thumb as gurudakshina, the fee owed to a teacher. Ekalavya gives it willingly, and his archery is weakened.