We had a tailor in our
town, Paulose. Excellent skills. We used to go only to him for getting our shirts
stitched. He had one problem though. Whenever we go to him with the material,
he would say “couple of days”. When we went after 2 days, he would give some
excuse or other. Finally after 15 days, 4 trips by us, 10 excuses from him, he would give the shirt that too after waiting for 2 hours at his shop on that day
of delivery. Tailors were so notorious those
days, now things have changed. We are trying to find excuses to be given to tailors as why
we are not going to them at all!
We had a training session
by one senior exec that day. Topic was “Time Management”. We were first time managers of around 15 who
came before time. There were many more old hats who had to attend the class. Senior
exec blasted people for not coming on time, a big “bhaashan” to all of us who
were so punctual. That too for 15 minutes. Then he got into the presentation. He
was into 3rd slide. Bunch of people entered. By the time he was on
to 6th slide the class was full. Probably the old hats had attended
many other sessions by him and they knew well that first 15 minutes would any
way be a waste, meant for his warm up!
As the class progressed,
in some context he talked about the importance of morning walk. “How many of
you go for morning walk?” A thin fellow from the middle row raised his hand.
All others were looking at exec, as if he was asking us to commit some heinous
crime. “I go for a walk daily that too for an hour, that is why I am so fit” he
declared. He went on for some more time with Time management fundas and then
suddenly he held his left shoulder. “Oh this terrible pain, spondylitis”. We had a
funny look at him, he quickly realized his mistake. He wanted to bail out
himself with an excuse “See, I took care of most parts of my body by the
morning walk, but I totally ignored my back bone”!
Yes, it was Valentine ’s
Day yesterday. I was wondering what excuse I would give if at all somebody asks me whether I celebrated Valentine's. I can not say I am a chauvinist, I am a modern man with progressive outlook. I cannot say we are old, we are still quite
young at our hearts. I cannot say kids are around, they both are out of town. I
cannot say I don’t have money, I just updated my passbook and the bank balance still
looks healthy. I cannot say I may tend to eat more, I can plan to go to a star
hotel and have a single coffee, with of course a candle in the front, to blow my budget. Oh yes, finally I got the right
excuse. We haven’t celebrated Valentine’s day in our life time, so I will not do it
this time also. Safe excuse which I can use for next year and subsequent years
to come!
Miles and miles away, a few hours after my finding of this excuse, near
Oslo a Norwegian gave another excuse yesterday. ( Source : metro.co.uk) He told cops he
forgot to take his license from home, while he was found stranded on that snowy
road in a car. When cops looked at him and found that he was too short he told that he
was a dwarf. A “ten year old dwarf”. This boy was not alone. He took his 18 month
old sister along with him and drove towards his grand parent’s place which is 60 Kms away. He drove 10 Kms and got stuck. Probably he would have been fed up with the
way these elders drive the car so recklessly, many a times drunk, breaking all
possible laws. With all good intentions, he wanted to show the world how one
can drive correctly. Luckily there was no damage to the car or the kids or
anybody else.
Miles away, a few hours
later another person gave an excuse. In Delhi. Former Chief Minister. ( Source : headlines in all
trailing and leading news papers in India ! )The excuse was Jan Loka bill and
he quit his job. I am not an expert in politics, governance, anti-corruption
for that matter even in corruption. But my humble take on this is that he did a
mistake (only one ?) while calling all politicians corrupt and kept them at bay. I am 100%
sure there are a few good apples in that lot which know governance. He
should have roped them in to help him in governance which is different from a
movement. One can have group meetings, discussion on social media to arrive at
decisions for a movement to oppose evils such as environment destabilization, upliftment
for the down trodden masses, if not alcoholism but at least oppose your "drunk
and beat" your wife habit. For governance one needs experience and skills especially in
the so called “democratic” complex country like India. Yes, in this case damage has
been done. Hopes of many in Delhi who were given promises are shattered. Those
many across the county hoped to see a different, better political and governance system
are totally disappointed. Hope this movement turns into a good corrupt free
governance model, I do hope.
One way to avoid giving
lame excuses is to think through the feasibility of promises before they are made. One should not think of those excuses upfront that to be given in the event of a failure. Another choice is under-promise and over-deliver. But there, you would be walking a tight rope.
If you under-promise too much, you may not have that appeal. And if you
over-deliver too much again your credibility is at stake.
Excuse me, I will not be
able to write daily. But let me promise
you. I will try to post interesting stuff once in a week!!!
Enjoy your weekend.
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