My Dear Colleagues— Poem by ashok jadhav

(A meeting room. The speaker stands, papers in hand, then slowly sets them aside. The voice is calm, reflective, edged with resolve.)

My dear colleagues—
I've rehearsed this in silence more times
than I've spoken in meetings.
We sit together every day,
share tables, deadlines, coffee cups,
yet rarely share ourselves.
We speak in targets and timelines,
but swallow doubts, fatigue, and fear.
My dear colleagues,
we call this professionalism—
the art of wearing calm
while chaos hums beneath our skin.
I have watched us nod in agreement
when questions burned,
applaud decisions we did not believe in,
mistake compliance for unity.
This is not blame.
It is recognition.
We are talented.
We are capable.
But somewhere between ambition and survival,
we forgot to listen—
to each other,
and to ourselves.
We rush past kindness
as if it slows productivity.
We measure worth in output,
not in effort,
not in integrity.
My dear colleagues,
I ask not for rebellion,
only for courage.
The courage to speak without fear,
to disagree without disrespect,
to succeed without erasing one another.
Let us build a place
where voices are not filtered by hierarchy,
where mistakes teach, not punish,
where work does not cost us our humanity.
I stand here not above you,
not against you—
but among you.
My dear colleagues,
let us do better.