Some incidents in our lives are interesting, to say the least! While being so, they also carry valuable lessons! …….Life is like that!
Let me share with you some such incidents which did have important lessons for me to learn!
First incident happened during a train journey, which was also my first journey on that route. I was travelling from Mangalore (in Karnataka) to Guwahati (Assam) for taking up employment with SBI as a Probationary Officer. This journey was long one, of almost 3000 kms. The route passes through Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal.
This train passes through the entire length of Andhra Pradesh which takes about 12 hours. I was taking a nap and woke up when train stopped at a station in Andhra Pradesh. I was slightly away from the window. When I had a glimpse of the platform, I saw the name board. Kannada script has a lot of similarity with Telugu script and I could read the name board written in Telugu as “Murugu Doddi”. While I could read the name board, the problem was that I could not really understand the meaning. I presumed the name of the station to be “Murugu Doddi”. After sometime, the train stopped at another station and when I looked out, there was this name board “Murugu Doddi” again! I presumed that perhaps, there are two stations with the same name. Then after sometime, train stopped at third station and I saw the name board in Telugu which, again, was “Murugu Doddi”. Now I sensed that something was wrong and asked a person there as to what is “Murugu Doddi”. He told me that “Murugu Doddi” is Toilet! The valuable lesson learnt here is that presumptions can be misleading and may land one in trouble!
Second incident was when I ordered food by room service while staying in a hotel in Guwahati and the Chef had forgotten to add salt to one of the dishes! As luck would have it, I forgot the name of salt in Hindi which was the only language understood by the Room-service boy. I tried, in my broken Hindi, to make him understand that I needed salt. I even asked him tell me the ingredients of that dish and he told all of them, but salt. Finally I had a brilliant idea and told him that Mahatma Gandhi had launched a Satyagraha on this commodity. At that point he got scarred and ran down and came up with Hotel Manager who luckily understood that all I wanted was ‘salt’. The lesson learnt here is that one should use the right words for effective communication. Any number of words cannot replace that one “right” word!
Third incident concerns astrology! I was posted in a remote village in Mizoram by name Tlabung as Branch Manager of a SBI branch. This is the southern tip of Mizoram located not far away from Burma (Myanmar)! One day two persons visited me at my office and offered to predict future by reading my palms! I was not interested and asked them to get lost! They came back next day and again offered to predict my future and did not want any money for that but a testimonial. I relented and their prediction was really strange! They said that I will be posted to a place east of this village! I was really annoyed as east of that village was Myanmar! But believe me! After sometime, I was posted to SBI branch in Hong Kong and Hong Kong is definitely located in the precise direction predicted by those blokes who visited me at Tlabung! The lesson learnt here is not to treat anyone with disdain as you never know what value they add to your life!
Dear friends, Life is like that!!!! Lessons taught by such interesting incidents are quite difficult to forget! But the requirement is that we should keep our eyes open, ears open and have an open mind to receive those lessons!