Satyam bruyat priyam bruyat, na bruyat satyam apriyam. Priyam cha nanritam bruyat, esha dharmah sanatanah. Speak the truth. Speak what is pleasant. Do not speak an unpleasant truth. Do not speak a pleasant untruth. This is the eternal law.
The verse is from the Manusmriti, the ancient law book, chapter 4, verse 138.
In 2006, a study by Peter Schumacher and Eric Olsson of the Value Leadership Group looked at European IT firms that outsource work to India. Every company named the tendency of Indian staff to over-commit as a significant cultural issue.
“We saw several examples of missed deadlines and project failures that the companies attributed to this trait,” the authors said.
In one of the Akbar and Birbal tales, Emperor Akbar’s pet parrot has died. No courtier dares to tell him, because he has ordered that anyone who brings news of the parrot’s death will be hanged. Birbal goes to the emperor and says: “Jahanpanah, your parrot is neither eating anything, nor drinking anything.”
When Akbar asks whether the parrot is dead, Birbal replies: “I did not say it. You said it.”
“Respected Sir, I am writing this email to humbly request you to please do the needful regarding the same.” TalkDrill, an Indian company that teaches workplace English, uses this sentence as its example of an email to fix. Its corrected version opens with the point: “I have attached the revised vendor contract for your review.”
Some sample leave applications for Indian schools open with “Respected Sir,” give the reason, and end with the request: “Kindly grant me leave for these two days.”