Short Story explaininng the RIL- Indian Govt Gas pricing tussle

Let me explain the issue with simple story, the names are fictitious and any resemblance to is coincidental :)

5 friends, Mohan, Molly, Ranga, Yantriki and AamAadmi go out for dinner.

Mohan says, I will take you to the best and most reasonable restaurant in town, operated by Mr.Reli.

They order 5 dishes and 5 rounds of rotis(5X5 total 25 rotis).

After 20min, 5 dishes are served and 5 rotis are served.

After the first round of rotis, all ask for second round. Mr. Reli says, cost is rising there will be delays.

After 20 mins, 5 chapatis come, but the size is smaller than first. Everyone looks at each other, Molly says, some technical problems may have reduced the size.They eat and ask for the third round of roti.

After 25 min, 5 chapatis come, but the size is half the first. AamAadmi says something is wrong. Mohan assures, law does not specify the size of roti, hence we must accept it quietly and eat. They eat and ask for fourth round.

Mr.Reli says, more roti can be served at double the price. Yantriki and Aamaadmi are angry. Molly says, it is written in Menu 'prices are subject to change', hence we must accept it.

Yantriki and Aamaadmi says, lets go to another place.

Mohan ask Ranga to decide. Ranga is known for his brains. Ranga says, cost of dinner in Taj Hotel is 2000 Rs, cost of dinner in Dhaba is 100 Rs. Taking and average and other inputs, it is better we pay double the cost of Rotis here.

Yantriki says, this is breaking the law. He had to serve us 5 at the same rate and same size.

Mohan, as usual is silent. Molly says, either eat here or you will have to pay very high in the other place.



P.S. I thank Aditi Restaurant in Mumbai for inspiring this story.
Yantriki is the downstream power, fertilizer and engineering companies that face closure.
Aam aadmi is everyone.

I hope you enjoyed, your feedback is welcome.

Conversation between a beautiful girl and a engineer boy

A Beautiful girl (Beauty) and an Engineer boy (Techie) are traveling on a train, they happen to be seated next to each other.

Techie: Hey, how you doing!

Beauty: with a smile, I am good.

Silence of a few moments.

Beauty: Are you comfortable, if there is anything on your mind,

Techie(with a smile) : , yes, If I open my mind, I am afraid, I might make you uncomfortable , (smiles again).

Beauty(very confidently):, oh come on, I can handle anything. May be you don’t find it easy talking with a beautiful girl.

Techie: As easy as you would find talking about train.

Beauty: What’s there to talk about a train, its just a train.

Techie: What’s there to fear talking to beautiful girl, just another beauty.

Beauty: I buy a ticket, complete my journey, that’s it, never give a thought about a train

Techie: I buy a ticket to cinema or switch on TV, get my entertainment, never give a thought after that to beautiful people.

Beauty: Are you saying beauty has no effect on you?

Techie: As much as the engineering of a train has on you.

Beauty: Don’t you see beauty around you?

Techie: As mush as you see engineering around you.

Beauty: Where is engineering, I see beauty when I get up in the morning and look at the mirror.

Techie: I see engineering in the mirror, and the tooth brush in my hand.

Beauty: So you don’t see my big round eyes?

Techie: Just like you didn’t see the big wheels of this train.

Beauty: So you don’t notice the curves of my lips?

Techie: Just like you don’t notice the curves on the window, it makes it much more lasting.

Beauty: Beauty affects so many people around the world and in so many ways?

Techie: Engineering affects all the more people in all the more ways.

Beauty: Do you know how much effort goes into being beautiful?

Techie: As much as you can guess that goes into designing any machine.

Beauty: Not just one person’s effort, there are so many people behind it.

Techie: Ya sure, but not more than what it takes to make a train.

Beauty: Machines cannot make beauty

Techie: But they surely make everything that you use to enhance your beauty.

Beauty: Beauty makes people life livable,

Techie: Engineering make life comfortable, affordable, and everything that man makes..

Beauty: So you mean beauty has no value?

Techie: It has, but probably not as much as being given to it.

Beauty: There was beauty in the world even before man made machines?

Techie: ya, and if beauty was sufficient, man would not have started making machines.

Beauty: You are saying this because you want to prove that I am stupid if I don’t see technology.

Techie: Oh no!, All I am saying is there is technology behind every product, and there is a person behind every beautiful or not so beautiful face.

The train reaches destination, they get down.

Techie: Would like to have a coffee?

Beauty: I can, what are you going to talk about?

Techie: May be I can tell you about the evolution of the design of cup and saucer.

What about you, do you want to talk about something?

Beauty: No. I will listen, I am happy, someone talks to me regardless of my beauty.

They walk to a restaurant.

_____________________________________________________________

Abhinav Bhatnagar

09 Oct 2010

Author’s note: The story was written to mark the 50^th anniversary of one of the foremost college of Technology in India, MNNIT, which is also author’s Alma matter.

Media's 24X7 fixation with glamor and finance is making people forget the value of engineering.

Classroom lessons in leadership - Thinking out of the box

Dear readers, once again we are in the same classroom, in a reputed B-school, with some of the best brains with us.

The dean walks into the class and says :
"Our guest today is here to tell you about 'out of the box thinking'. It is 'out of the box thinking' for us to give him this opportunity, but he could persuade us."

The guest, a lean figure, walks in wearing a simple khadi Kurta pyjama, with old fashioned spectacles. The dean walks out.

He speaks softly:

"Dear friends, I am here to tell you about 'out of the box thinking',
Your faces tell me that you want to ask me who I am or what have I done in life to deserve to cover this topic, but [pauses and smiles] that wouldn't be an out of the box question. So lets drop it.

I assume you know what a box is. I am sure you would know many examples in business and politics or warfare, where the leaders 'think out of the box' and get desired results. If you watch movies, there are many examples of 'out of the box thinking' to win a girls heart.

Now, to make this session and out of the box kind, I have decided to show you a little magic trick. You must have seen magicians putting a beautiful girl in a box and making her disappear, we will do something similar.

But, because this is a class on 'out of the box thinking', we will do something different. Instead of making the girl invisible, we will make the boxes invisible.

I request a beautiful volunteer. "

A girl stands up from her seat and steps forward.

The guest : "Please write a few things about yourself on the board that can help us in identification. Like age, occupation, religion, nationality etc. For confidentiality, don't write your name"

The girls walks up to the board and writes.

1) Age : 26
2) Occupation: student MBA
3) Religion : Hindu
4) Qualification: B Com
5) Nationality: Indian
6) Dream Job : Investment banking

The guest: "Thats enough for us. Kindly step down."

The girls steps down and stands in front of the class.

The guest: "someone, please dim the lights"

The lights are dimmed, the guest steps in front of the girls and waves his hand over her head saying "abra ca dabra" and moves around the girl in circles. After a few rounds and chanting, he goes back and sits on his chair.

The guest: "Please switch on the lights."
[the lights are turned on]
The guest: [facing the class] Now the magic is complete, there are invisible boxes around the girl.

The girl: "But, I don't feel anything."

The guest: "They restrict your movement"

The girl waves her arms, moves a few steps and says "But, I don't feel anything."

The guest: "You can take your seat"

The guest: [facing the class] "Your faces tell me you want to see some magic.

See the boxes are invisible, the girl is not, what more do you want."

student : "where are the boxes?"

The guest: "Around the girl, they are invisible"

student : "magic means, you make the boxes - from visible to invisible"

The guest : "Ok, I will remove the remaining visible traces"
He moves up to the board and clears the board.

He turns around and says "The list given on the board were just some of the boxes that the girl lives in, these boxes restrict her movement, the places she can go, the things she can do, the people she can talk to etc."

The class is nodding in disagreement.

"Few examples might help:
There are few people she can talk to, for example, the girl will discuss budget with her class mates, but not with the canteen guy or her mother who get affected by it.

She will not learn how a punctured tyre is repaired, because she is a commerce graduate and not an Engineer. Illiterate people may be good at it, but you are in box."

The nodding stops.

"Most of the nouns and adjectives you use are boxes, so are the concepts and phenomenons taught to you. The real unfortunate part is they limit your thinking and you allow them to."

"I shall answer the question, that appeared on your faces in the beginning. My name is Sharad Joshi, I am writer and a satirist. A satirist, for me, is a person who always breaks the boxes that exists in the heads. In today's popular art, satire rarely finds a place and so people live in boxes made for them and paid by them."

He turns around to the board and writes
'If a bird wishes to fly, it has to break out of the egg first.'

Abhinav
05 Mar 2010

Classroom lessons in Leadership - Business is not run by children

We are again the same class in a leading management institute.

A guest walks inside the class wearing a suit.
He says, "I will tell you the story of the suit as this was the second best I wanted to buy".

"There was a marriage in my house, and as the custom in India is to buy new clothes on the occasion, I decided to buy a nice suit for myself.
In the small town where I come from, there are only a few shops that sell suits. These are all readymade, and as you might be aware, getting a suit tailored is not the fashion in India.

So I and one of my more stylish friends went from one shop to another to buy a nice suit. We found a really nice piece, withing our modest budget at a shop and were pretty sure that we should buy it.
But as we had one more shops left to see, we asked the young shopkeeper, who looked like owners son, to keep it for us till tomorrow and we shall be back. He agreed.
We covered other shop and did not find anything at par with the one selected.

Next day, we went to buy the selected suit and we asked the young guy for it. He said that he has sold it to someone. His manner suggested otherwise.

As a customer, I had a feeling that he hasn't and for some reason is keeping it from me. One could be price.
As you may know, in India the retailer are free to decide the prices and if they find that something can be sold to next customer at a higher price they would like to retain the product.
That's what I thought was happening.

I offered him higher price, but he insisted he has sold. Again, the manner suggested otherwise."

The guest : "Now, I would like to ask you what would be your response in this situation."
A girl stands and says 'I would have yelled at him and he would have remembered it for his life'.

A guy stands and says 'I would have politely explained to him the importance of not loosing a customer and asked him to get me the suit'

Another student says, 'I would have asked the retailer to get another piece from the company.'

Another student , 'I would offer him higher price for the same piece.'

The guest, "All those who would like to teach the retailer a lesson in business or life, please raise your hand"
All hands go up.

The guest, "As it was marriage time at my house, I was carrying a few toffees in my pocket. I asked the young guy across the counter, do you like toffees, he said yes, so I gave him two and quietly walked out of the store."

The guest, "Some time later, I realized, I should have no interest in teaching him a lesson, I should learn my own and move on".

He turns to the board and writes
"Don't let the child in you, run your business."
Gurubhai.

Classroom lessons in Leadership - Don't loose your focus

This happened in a premier B-school in India. This school has a high focus on leadership skills and from time to time calls social, political or other leaders for guest lectures. One day it was a time for guest lecture on leadership and the class was in full attendance.

The lecturer walks in and finds the light inappropriate, he fiddles with the switches. As the classroom is large and there are many lights and their many switches, he leaves some on and some off. He walks to the board and finds only half of it is well lit. There are many dark spots in the classroom and faces of some of the students are not clearly visible.

He says, " someone please turn on on the lights".
A student from the corner of first row rises, the lecturer says, "not you, some one else".
Another from the corner of second row rises, the lecturer says again, ''not you, someone else".
Another rises from the other corner, the lecturer repeats his words.
The student behind the previous one rises and the lecturer again repeats his words. This continues for a few more students. A student from the middle of the back bench rises, the lecturer repeats, but the students comes to the stairs. The lecturer repeats again, but the student continues to come down, folding his shirt sleeves on the way. The lecturer stands in from of the students and says angrily "I told you to sit done, some one else will switch on". The student replies calmly, "I am going for a smoke".
Lecturer says "ok", turns towards the class and continues, "someone switch on the lights", another student rises, the lecturer repeats again "Not you, someone else".

The next moment, lights turn on, everyone sees towards the switchboard and find the student who was going for a smoke standing next to the switchboard. The lecturer fumes, "I told you, someone else will switch on", the student replies "Can we get on with the lecture now?".
The lecturer replies with the same calm, "Good".

The lecturer walks towards the board and starts writing. He writes:-

1) There always remain dark spots in a society/corporation, a leaders job is to switch on the lights.
2) Everyone expects, the person nearest to the switchboard will turn on the lights.
3) People at far end, assume (wrongly), that its not their job to turn on.
4) Whenever a person rises to turn on the lights, someone, higher authorities or vested interest will stop her/him.
5) A leader is fed up with the status quo or the game of someone trying and others stopping.
6) A leader will have to sidestep arguments or threats and not loose focus.
7) Find the darkness.

मुन्ना भाई

He turns towards the class and says "there's nothing more to it." and walks out.




Abhinav
08 Oct 2007