PART 2: THE RENAISSANCE -----> Chapter 7

On Monday, we got the cost figures we had anxiously been waiting for. On analyzing them, we discovered that we could operate at much lower costs than what we were presently incurring. It implied that we could sell at lower prices and still get higher margins than in the recent past. Our efforts were beginning to pay off.

We had now found an immediate solution to the problem. The fire-fighting was over. I decided it was time to address the basic issues faced by a business. In order to run a business successfully, we must essentially focus on four aspects—the product, the people, the marketing effort and finance.

As far as the product was concerned, it was being created as per the specifications of our client. Radha had found the design to be quite simple and satisfactory. It wasn’t a highly sophisticated product. It wasn’t something which had to be highly differentiated from that of products of competitors.

The people aspect was the most difficult one to consider. What happens in most organizations is that workers watch managers wearing ties and shoes walking in and out of air-conditioned offices, while they sweat themselves out in factories. Some of them find it demoralizing to see owners driving to their workplaces in fancy cars, rather than feeling grateful for being employed by them. They then develop a negative attitude towards work.

We had to train such workers and show them how they fit into the scheme of things. We had to acknowledge their hard work and address their diverse personal needs. We had to develop relationships with each worker. Their loyalty could be secured by undertaking initiatives that do not involve direct money payment to them, like supplying furniture and electronic items to their homes during the festive season.

We also had to constantly articulate our values to them. We could always remind them of the importance of setting and achieving goals, being ambitious and adhering to ethics. This would help create a suitable organization culture. We would help to improve their productivity and continuously find better ways of getting things done to keep control on costs.

Thirdly, we had to go for an aggressive marketing campaign. With our economy booming, infrastructural development was taking place at a quick pace. The result was a sudden increase in the demand for industrial products like machines. So a huge market potential lay untapped for us. With lower costs, we could reduce prices. With that, we literally had to just meet customers, give our quotations to them and receive orders from them. I foresaw many bulk orders for the firm.

Fourthly, our financial position was in bad shape, to say the least. The short-term loan did solve some very short-term liquidity problems. But if we had our way, things would soon improve.

Lok uncle accepted my ideas. So, we planned to focus on marketing and on our people, which would solve our financial problems. We made new price lists. There was the possibility of a sudden rise in the prices of raw materials. But we decided to take a chance. We had to generate orders to repay our loan. We made up our mind to launch the Training Programme for the workers after dispatching Capt. Ironman’s goods.

I told Radha about the favorable cost figures. I owed her a big treat.

We met at the usual spot in the evening.

“Madam,” I teased her, “I owe you a big treat. Tell me, where do you want me to take you?”

“A treat? For me?” she asked. “Hmm…” she began to think, stroking her chin in a playful manner. “Aha!” she exclaimed, snapping her fingers. “Come with me to a place and we’ll celebrate there.”

This time, she had come in an autorickshaw like me. Had she come on her scooter, I could have taken her for a ride. I rued the lost chance.

As the autorickshaw negotiated the traffic, I caught her staring at me. Since I was coming to meet her, I had just had a clean shave. I had to get rid of those five o’clock shadows. So she might have observed that I still remained well-shaven despite the fact it was evening.

“Mach 3,” I told her.

“Huh? Ma what?” she asked, somewhat startled.

“Mach 3,” I repeated. “That’s the brand I use to shave.”

“No! Not that,” she said, gesturing with her hands. “I just noticed you’ve got grey hair.”

I felt abashed.

“Anyway, don’t pluck it. Otherwise it’ll spread to neighboring areas,” she advised me.

“Actually, it’s not a case of premature graying,” I said, trying to hide my embarrassment. “I dyed it grey so that I look more mature in front of our workers.”

“Oh! If that’s the case, you can paint all your hair white. It’ll also suit the shape of your face,” she joked loudly. Radha could be mean at times. I consoled myself. Besides, what’s the relation between the shape of a man’s face and his hair color?

On reaching the destination, I realized it was an orphanage. We got off the auto rickshaw and Radha told the driver to wait until we got back. We then began to walk towards the office of the institution. “There’s an incident which led to my association with this orphanage,” Radha said, and began to narrate it.

“About five years ago, my sister’s engagement ceremony was being held at our home. My uncles had different ideas on decorating the place in a showy manner. A verbal spat ensued between the two of them, and the dispute was finally settled by deciding to do away with the showy decoration itself. My parents then donated a sum of money, covering the cost of the glossy decoration, to this orphanage. We’ve been coming here regularly, ever since.”

We could hear the children play. “There are fifteen children here,” Radha said, as we reached the office. Upon seeing us, a man bade us in. He seemed to be the manager of the orphanage.

“Radha, how are you?” he enquired with a smile.

“Fine. Thank you,” Radha replied. “How are things here?”

“Things are going fine. The children’s needs are being met. Their studies are also going well. The miracle is that whenever we are in need of money, somebody always comes forward to help us. Indeed, God is great!

“We’ve just started a library for them. They are now reading books written by our freedom-fighters. It will also make them realize that freedom comes at the price of sacrifice.”

“That’s great! These days, even children staying with their parents don’t read such books,” Radha said. “Well, this is my friend Abhinav. We’ve come to make a contribution.” The manager nodded his approval.

I looked around the place while the manager took out the Receipt Book. The building looked old, but the surroundings were clean. Pictures of Hindu Gods adorned the walls of the room.

“May I see them?” Radha asked after we had made our contributions.

“Sure. Go ahead,” the manager said, handing out the receipts.

The noises of the children grew louder and louder as we walked through the corridor, then the verandah and out onto the playground. A few children were playing football and some others were seated on the steps nearby.

On seeing Radha, they rushed towards her in jubilation. The joy on their faces knew no bounds. All of them looked less than fifteen years of age. We hadn’t brought any sweets for them. I didn’t know that we were coming here in the first place. Thinking about it, I realized that these children didn’t need sweets. They needed love. They needed…a future.

There was so much noise I couldn’t make out what they were saying to Radha. She and I sat down on the steps, and all of them surrounded us. She hushed them up with a smile. I didn’t check my wrist watch, but I knew that time flew by.

Radha spoke to each of them, one by one. Some of them spoke about their academic performances, while others spoke about their performances in sports. They spoke about the books they read recently from the library. Radha congratulated them and then encouraged each one of them to do even better. At that point, I realized what Radha was to them. She was their Chechi .

The emotion I experienced there was unprecedented. I felt as if peace and pain had met each other in my heart. But it created something more in me: an awareness of a greater sense of responsibility. The events in my life were beginning to unfold like pieces of a jig-saw puzzle coming together to create a clear picture. My decision to quit my job and come back to Kerala, Lok uncle accepting my offer to help him and my visit to this place all seemed to be a series of coincidences to me.

“This is Abhi Anna,” Radha introduced me to them. I got to know each one of them.

It was beginning to grow dark when we decided to leave. On the way back to the auto rickshaw, Radha asked me, “Abhinav, when I spoke to you about active patriotism, there was this question I said I would ask again. Do you remember it?”

I thought for a second. ‘Will you die for your country?’ That was probably it. “Ask me,” I said to her.

“Will you die for your country?”

“No. I won’t die for my country,” I said. Radha listened to me attentively. “I will live for my country. My country needs me,” I said.

We stopped walking and looked into each other’s eyes for a few seconds. Then I looked around. I could feel some kind of energy flow through my entire body. I felt charged up. “I’ve been made for India!” I declared. “I’ve been created to serve my country!”

Radha looked at me and said, “Welcome to the show!”

We then walked up to her auto rickshaw, got in and sped off.

***

PART 2: THE RENAISSANCE -----> Chapter 6

At night, I saw Padma strolling in the garden and decided it was time for my word of advice to her. I approached her and enquired, “Have you made up your mind?”

Padma looked at me, her eyes gleaming from the tube light nearby, and said decisively, “I understand what you say. I love Amma the most. I won’t do anything that’ll hurt her.”

I was expecting this answer from her.

“If your parents want you to have an arranged marriage, go for an arranged marriage,” I advised. “But before your marriage, if you develop a crush on somebody then use this…rule of…er…reversal which I’m going to tell you.” She looked on, baffled. I continued, “The Reversal Rule is this: Before your marriage, focus on the negatives. And after your marriage, focus on the positives.

“Suppose you have a crush on somebody, look at his negatives. Don’t look at his positives. After you are married, look at your husband’s positives. Don’t look at his negatives. This rule is the key to a happy married life.”

Padma’s jaw dropped after listening to this. And I felt proud of having thought up something like that. And then, it was my turn to face something unexpected from her.

“How on earth do you know all this?” she groused.

I was yorked. I quickly recovered from the embarrassment. I myself had no clue where this idea came from. Smiling sheepishly, I replied, “Well you can always count on me to say things like that.”

She looked at me suspiciously…as if I was secretly married to someone and received my wisdom from my experience as a husband. I quickly changed the subject by giving her some instructions: “Now, I want you to do a few things.”

“Like what?”

“Quit your job at Chennai and come down to Kerala. You can get a job in your IT field at Kochi or Thiruvananthapuram. I’ve got a gut feeling that that man you’ve talked about is out to dupe you. Listen to me. Change your mobile number and don’t attend his calls. Don’t meet him and come back as soon as possible.”

“What if he keeps on calling me?”

“Then you know your priorities, don’t you Padma?”

“Yes I do. I’ve decided to leave tomorrow itself.”

“Fine, Padma. Let the best thing happen. And Padmakutty, remember this: Sometimes we are better off not having everything we want. And don’t forget the Reversal Rule I taught you.” She looked at me in an untrusting way again and nodded.

***

We decided to track the production costs and the productivity of our workers. We wanted to see the direct effect of our programme on the speed of production.

We needed to reduce our selling price to become competitive. But, to increase our profit margin, we had to reduce costs further. I believed we could do it.

Radha hadn’t come to the factory. She had to go to her relatives’ place. Besides, she had more or less completed what she had set out to do for me. I was looking forward to speaking to her about Capt. Ironman Shahnawaz. I contacted her and fixed the rendezvous.

In the evening, we met along the banks of a canal in Alappuzha. This time she had come alone.

“Mahesh Annan didn’t accompany me this time. He feels that you’re not that troublemaker type of guy,” Radha said, chuckling.

I talked to her briefly about Capt. Ironman Shahnawaz and about our conversation at his office.

“Honesty, hard work, self-sacrifice and discipline…these are the qualities of the Indian Army,” she said, with a twinkle in her eyes.

“Radha, I was thinking about the concept of active patriotism which you had told me the other day.”

“Tell me…what about it?”

“Well, this requires some explanation before I get to the point.”

“Go on.”

“Okay. Take the case of Japan. It was a country devastated by war. Its people had faced great humiliation at its defeat. It is a country prone to earthquakes and doesn’t have many natural resources. But it is the second largest economy in the world right now. How did Japan make this incredible transition? The answer is the active patriotism present in its people. That hard work was a part of the country’s ethos and values also helped. The Japanese directed their thoughts and efforts towards the revival of their economy. I’ve even heard that women went to the extent of cutting their hair and exporting it for the sake of the country. Within a few decades, Japan transformed itself into an economic superpower. Some of the world’s best brands like Toyota, Honda, Sony and Panasonic are all Japanese.

“Now consider our case. We’ve got a host of natural resources. But people are not concerned about utilizing them or adding value to them. People don’t know what to do or which direction to move towards. It seems that most of our people are content that India achieved freedom.

“I think our people have got an attitude problem. The fact is that there is so much to be done. We are still an underdeveloped economy. There is still a long way to go before we can call ourselves a developed country. I think it is time for a revolution—a revolution in the minds of the people, for India’s development.”

“Abhinav, I totally agree with you on this. It is time for a movement to take place,” Radha responded.

I continued, “Japan grew from exports and growth in the manufacturing sector. India has got a one billion plus population. So our country is growing by providing services to this vast consumer market. But this growth has to be inclusive. The poor must shake off the shackles of poverty. There must be all-round development of the masses instead of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. This requires a mass movement to occur.”

We remained silent for a few moments deliberating what I had just said. Then I broke the silence. “Radha, you know what? Capt. Shahnawaz taught me a huge lesson today!”

“Lesson?” she asked with excitement.

“Yes. I had been so impressed by his achievements in the face of adverse circumstances. I called him up today and asked him the secret of his success. And here’s what he told me, ‘Set a goal higher than your individualistic goal or your family’s goal and go all out to achieve it. It will always motivate you to give your very best, no matter what setbacks you may have to face. And when you do your best, you will achieve prosperity in life.’ He said that he’s happy to be alive today. His best friend, another Army Officer, was killed during the same fateful military operation, where the Captain lost both legs.”

“He is really an Ironman,” Radha saluted him.

***

I decided to spend the weekend with my parents at Cochin. When I reached our home, I found Sudha aunty there. She was Nandi aunty’s cousin who lived in the immediate neighborhood.

Sudha aunty was the Queen of Chinese Whispers and was a real prig. She would receive and send unimportant news to several relatives and made her speculations on them. She was known among relatives as the ‘Local Cable TV Network’. And she was here to express her suspicions on Padma’s arrival at ‘Vishnu Nivas’.

“Abhinav, why did Padma come home?” she asked me.

“As usual. She finished one of her projects and came home to meet her parents,” I answered.

“No, no,” she objected. “It is because she’s got an affair with a boy in Chennai. She has come to seek her parents’ approval. Don’t you know of it?”

“Well, I haven’t heard of such a thing. From whom did you get such valuable information?” I asked with a hint of sarcasm. I wondered whether she had indeed got such news from Padma or was she just speculating.

“I am sure of it. Only four months have passed since her last visit. Her project has only four months’ duration or what?” she questioned. On hearing this question, I realized that Sudha aunty had succeeded in keeping her reputation intact. She was merely theorizing.

“Aunty, different projects have different durations. Her last project was of a shorter duration,” I countered.

Sudha aunty gave up arguing. Of course, her speculation about Padma was true. But how did she guess it so correctly? Maybe practice does make things perfect.

Then I came to know the real purpose behind her visit. She wanted to know whether Lok uncle had plans to sell his business. I didn’t comment on that and went to my room. I didn’t want to listen to any further speculations.

After she had left, I told Achan and Amma that the business was on the road to recovery. “We have to focus on efficient purchasing and aggressive marketing. We’ll do this after analyzing the cost figures,” I told Achan.

I spent the next day sleeping, cooking and watching a movie. A holiday would pass by so quickly. You just had to close your eyes on a nice Sunday morning. And on opening them again, you would find that it was Monday morning, and time to get back to work.

***

PART 2: THE RENAISSANCE -----> Chapter 5

Early next morning, Lok uncle and I were on our way to the client’s corporate office at Kollam. The client was a man known as Captain Ironman Shahnawaz. He had served as Captain in the Indian Army. Lok uncle told me more about him as we sped towards the destination in uncle’s Zen.

The Captain belonged to a family of businesspeople. Their group had several businesses. But he decided to join the army. He lost his legs in battle and had to withdraw from service. But he was a man of great courage and conviction. Physical disability failed to dampen his spirits and he joined the Group’s business. His extraordinary leadership skills took the business to great heights. This resulted in his elevation as head of the Group.

“Why do such people join the army in the first place if their talent lies elsewhere?” I wondered aloud. “Ultimately these people terrorize those downstream into submission.”

“Their military experience gives them the ability to manage and lead,” replied Lok Uncle. “He’s also a man of compassion…known to contribute generously to families of jawans killed in battle.”

“Test discards finally end up being coaches,” I replied sarcastically.

Uncle’s silence meant he didn’t like my comment. I felt uneasy.

We reached his office a little earlier than the stipulated time. While waiting to meet him, we observed the behavior of the employees there. They seemed to be carrying out their duties with utmost discipline and professionalism. There was a sense of urgency and commitment in the way they worked. I was impressed. It looked like I had to eat my own words.

“Lok uncle, this is what I meant when I had talked about an ideal organization culture,” I said to uncle making a sudden U-turn. He nodded his head in approval.

At 11:30 am we were sitting in front of him. We had already begun our conversation. “I am extremely sorry for this mishap. I’m ready to replace the defectives with new ones conforming to the specifications, given a week’s time,” Lok uncle apologized. Mr. Shahnawaz had already been apprised of the situation by his staff the day before.

I noticed a glossy placed of a most beautiful girl on his table. I paid closer attention to it. She must have been eighteen years of age. No. May be twenty or even… The next second I saw the photograph in Captain’s hands. I looked on in embarrassment.

“That’s my granddaughter,” he replied.

I smiled sheepishly. Consoling myself, I thought Rad was better. But I could have had a better look at it.

“Mr. Lokanath, currently your defectives are being held up as inventory,” he proceeded. “We haven’t used it in production yet. We were building up a reserve stock expecting the demand to shoot up soon. So thus far no damage has been done. And by the way, our inspectors also didn’t detect the defects. If you had chosen to keep mum about this, we would probably not have known about it. So, I appreciate your honesty. Business, after all, is based on trust,” Mr. Shahnawaz replied.

“You are a valuable client of ours,” I responded trying hard to get noticed. “We would never want to lose you.”

“You won’t lose us because of this particular incident,” he assured. “Even we have had a similar experience. That too, when I had just joined the business after coming back from the Army. Our client gave us a second chance and we made the most of it.”

“Thank you,” said Lok uncle.

“Sir, despite the fact that you came from a family with a business background, why did you join the Army?” I asked Mr. Shahnawaz curiously.

He glared at me. I realized that I shouldn’t have because the answer seemed quite obvious. He then said, “Because I wanted to serve my country and protect its people.” I gulped, causing my Adam’s apple to move up and down. He then raised his voice and continued, “But I have never ever regretted it. Even if God gifted both legs back to me, I would still become an Indian Army Officer.”

Lok uncle, realizing my folly, came to my rescue. He intervened, “That’s why everybody calls you Captain Ironman Shahnawaz.” Mr. Shahnawaz didn’t respond to uncle’s comment.

He reminded us, “Like we have agreed. You have one week’s time to replace the defectives.” We came out of his room and left the place after completing some paperwork.

***

On our way back to Alappuzha, I began to think about active patriotism and about Capt. Ironman Shahnawaz’s love for the country. I realized that attitude is the most important thing. If one has got the right attitude, nothing is impossible.

I contacted Radha and informed her about the developments. “I’ll meet you at 3:00 pm at the factory,” she said to me.

The next issue was finance. We had already touched our overdraft limit. Lok uncle still had a landed property and gold ornaments, apart from his home and car as assets. He decided to take a short-term loan on the security of his landed property.

“Lok uncle, I think it’s advisable to pawn a part of the gold,” I suggested. “Landed property is quite different from gold. You know that people normally use their gold for meeting urgent financial requirements. We will start generating profits very soon.”

“Abhi, we had bought the gold to be given as gift at the time of Padma’s marriage,” he explained. “It is Nandi’s dream to see Padma adorned with all her gold jewellery. We want to have Padma married off decently. Using that gold for our business purpose is out of the question. So we have no other choice but to use that landed property of mine.”

It seemed that Padma was quite unaware of her parents’ love for her…and they were quite unaware of her plans. I felt bad that things had come to the point of depending on personal assets for use in the business. I assured Lok uncle that improvement in workers’ productivity would reduce costs.

***

On reaching the office I noticed that I hadn’t worn my belt. Just imagine yourself in formal wear without a belt on. In normal circumstances it would even be ok. But I was due to meet Rad in a few minutes’ time. I looked around. One man in picture was wearing a nice black leather belt. Anto. And I remembered something he had told me.

“Anto, you keep an extra pair of clothes at the office right?” I went upto him and asked.

“Yes.”

“Including accessories?”

He thought for a while, as if he didn’t understand what the word meant. He then nodded in the affirmative. We walked to a corner away from the workers. I looked at him blankly. And then, in one swift move, before he realized it, I unbuckled his belt, removed it from his pant and fastened it around my waist. In between I heard an “Oh my God!” cry from him as he clutched the waist of his pant as if to prevent it from falling. The next moment he ran away, taking long strides, to the office. The past few months’ work and the uncertainty surrounding his job had obviously taken a toll on his health and he must have lost a few kilos of weight.

Rad soon arrived and before long she resumed the work of modifying the layout. I was amazed by her level of commitment. She could have easily postponed the work to the following day, but she insisted on completing her work as soon as possible. I hadn’t anticipated at the time of calling her that her work would be so tough. And she knew that she was not going to be paid for this.

I believed that she was doing all this for me. It’s true that she loved challenges, and the work at Lakshmi was testing her abilities. But there were also other things that were difficult to do, er…like…cooking, cleaning, ironing and other chores which she could learn to do at home. After all, sooner or later she would be married off, and coming from a not so liberal family, it was expected of her to know such chores. Who knows? Maybe she could do these chores at my home…in future.

I was prevented from any further daydreaming when I suddenly noticed the reluctance of a few workers to cooperate with Radha. I thought it was time to do something about the attitude of these bozos. I called Radha away from them and said to her, “Radha, tell Anto to get these things done the way you want them to.” She obliged.

Later, I went over to Anto and first looked at his waistline. Yes, he was wearing another belt alright. A brown one which didn’t match with the color of his shoes.

“You deserve a treat, Mr. Anto,” I said. He looked at his shining black belt on my waist. I tried to distract him with an input. “Uh…you’re doing an excellent job here.”

He smiled in acknowledgement while I continued, “I think we can do it. It looks like things will go our way after all. But there is one aspect we must improve. That is labour relations. We have about fifty workmen here. Creating a relationship with a group of workers is difficult, because relationship is basically one-to-one. Isn’t it?”

Anto nodded in agreement. Yeah…right…one-to-one…I had flicked his belt off and he was near helpless. Obviously, he was cursing me, but it didn’t show on his face. I went on: “It is part of your job to interact with them on a daily basis. You must understand each and every worker’s issues. Then only we will be able to gain their confidence and trust. Focus on this aspect every day. Just like at school, when the teacher pays attention to each student, their individual performances improve. Anto, you too must make a commitment similar to that of the teacher.”

“Abhinav, I had thought about this idea of establishing more rapport with them,” Anto responded. “But I was faced with a dilemma: what if the idea backfired? I had nobody to support this idea. I would be squarely blamed. That’s why I didn’t move forward with it.”

“Don’t worry Anto,” I assured Anto of my support and encouraged him. “Go ahead. I’m with you. I’ll tell Lok uncle about this. He knows the difference which an ideal organization culture can make. We need to gain their trust. This is absolutely essential for our business success. And one more thing…we must do some socializing on an evening. I mean we both should meet up and discuss a few things.”

To this, his entire face broke into a huge grin. He knew what I meant.

***

PART 2: THE RENAISSANCE -----> Chapter 4

That evening, after coming out from my bath, I found that Padma was alone at home. Uncle and aunty had gone to a friend’s place. This looked like a perfect opportunity for me to give her a counsel. I was four years elder to her. I hoped she would listen to what I had to say.

She was seated in the living room, watching TV. But her mind seemed to be elsewhere. She switched off the TV as soon as she realized my presence in the room.

“So, what have you decided?” I asked her bluntly.

“I don’t know,” she replied.

Hearing her reply, I saw half-a-chance for me to pull it off. Now I wasn’t trying to hold her back from pursuing her dreams. I only wanted her to make a proper decision after considering all the facts and circumstances of the situation, rather than just jumping into conclusions like she was doing right now. Padma loved her mother the most. And this looked like an opening for me.

“Padma, do you know about Nandi aunty’s dreams regarding your marriage?” I asked. She looked confused. “She wants to arrange a marriage for you,” I went on, laying stress on the word ‘arrange’ to drive home my point. Padma pursed her lips on hearing this.

“To her, a marriage is not just something between a man and a woman,” I continued, “It is a relationship between two families. The families provide support to each other during tough times. Moreover, if the husband and wife face a problem between each other, it can be solved through timely intervention from either family’s folks. They can discuss with each other and can come to an understanding. This is what’s acceptable to aunty.” Padma was hooked. She listened intently.

“Do you know what her concept of an ideal son-in-law is?” I asked her. She once again kept mum. I answered my own question, “An ideal son-in-law should be well-mannered. He should be educated so that he’ll never become jobless. He should be employed. Aunty wants to insulate you from business problems. The boy should have a good family background.” Padma looked at the floor. Maybe she was thinking about the contradiction between her mother’s dreams and that of her own.

I continued with my lecture, “The ideal marriage for you is an arranged marriage. You are not mature enough to evaluate your prospective groom and his family. Leave that task to your parents.

“Of course, an arranged marriage must be fixed only after ensuring that both the families believe in the same values. The real love starts between a man and a woman only after their marriage. A husband and wife will encounter problems entirely different from that of boyfriend and girlfriend. The boyfriend-girlfriend relationship is actually ill-defined.

“Think again before piercing aunty’s heart,” I said to her, stressing the word ‘piercing’ to give maximum impact to my argument. Her face began to wear a guilty look after my reproach. I left the room leaving her to ponder over what I had just said. Although what I told her sounded more like a boring religious sermon, it was the hard-to-accept truth. But I was awe-struck wondering how she managed to listen to all that nerve-wracking stuff from me.

***

The next morning, we started off with our most important task—the Work Study. We proceeded to record the time taken to do a piece of work. We then changed the motions of workers and noted the time saved. We found out easier and better methods of doing the same work and standardized it. We were able to get rid of unnecessary movements and simplify necessary movements of workers. This was indeed a breakthrough, as we had hoped.

But soon, we were in for a shock.

We discovered a flaw in a certain work procedure. Our guess was that the flaw had resulted in a defective product. Anto traced the batch of the product carrying the likely defect. To our utter dismay, we found that particular batch of product to have passed our quality control checks and dispatched last week to a client.

We were 99% sure that there was a defect in that product. Till now the client had not rejected the goods. So these may have got past their quality control checks too. These could be either have been held up as inventory or it could already have been used in producing other products.

We were betwixt the devil and the sea. In the first case, we would have to replace the defective product with new ones because the defect could not be corrected. And we were already short of cash. In the second case, the defects would be passed on to end-consumers and there would be nothing we could do. If our client found out about the defect from end-consumers, we would surely lose a valuable client. This was a real nightmare.

We started to do some positive thinking. Our biggest plus-point was our ethics. We could bank on them in any crisis. We knew that business is based on honesty and trust. Cheaters never prosper. It was a tough call to make. But Radha and I knew that we had to make the call. Our client was our God. We had to inform him about this mishap. I convinced Lok uncle that even though our financial condition would be affected quite adversely, we had no other choice. But we did have something to feel relieved about. We had found out ways to reduce our costs. If we could manage this crisis successfully, we were safe for the future.

Lok uncle communicated the matter to the client’s office and fixed up an appointment to meet him at 11:30 am the next day. We would have to tell this to him in person.

***

At night, I didn’t speak a word to Padma. Counseling could wait for another day. Crisis management was the order of the day.

Negative thoughts began to play in my mind. If we lost that client the next day, I would probably be made a scapegoat. I had never felt so tense before. Just when I began to feel helpless, the mobile beeped. I answered the call. It was Radha.

“Abhinav, it’s me. Didn’t sleep yet?”

“No.”

“I know what you’re thinking about. It’s no use worrying, my friend. I just happened to read this line from The Gita. Would you care to listen?”

“Cut out the suspense, will you?” I replied with a chuckle.

“It says: ‘Do your duty, but you don’t have any right over the outcome of your effort. Success will come in its own way.’ Just remember, don’t be concerned with the results. Just concentrate on what you have to do. A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. And always look down on the problem. Don’t let the problem look down on you. Right?”

“The Gita says all that?”

“What?”

“A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do?”

“I was clarifying things for you. You…Dodo.”

Dodo? She just called me a Dodo. Did she really mean it? Nah!

“Ok? You got it?”

“Yep.”

“Chalo. Perfect.”

“Thanks Rad.”

It was a verse, which I had forgotten in this time of crisis. It had given me consolation in the past. And Radha’s reminder gave me consolation now as well. “Let the best thing happen,” I prayed to God. By the way, was ‘Rad’ a nice nickname, I thought. And dozed off.

***

PART 2: THE RENAISSANCE -----> Chapter 3

Just as I walked into the living room thinking about the next day, I heard a whistle. I looked towards the direction of the sound to find a girl seated on the sofa. It was Padma.

“Hi Padma! When did you arrive? You didn’t even say you were coming,” I said, in surprise.

“Oh! I’m sorry I didn’t seek your permission before coming here,” she teased me. I made a face.

Trying to pacify me, she said, “You know how I like surprising everyone. Amma told me that the Central Para Military Force is camping in our home. Started using your AK-47 on our workers?”

“Central Para Military Force? AK-47?” I asked, pretending that I didn’t get the joke. “Say, are you on leave?”

“I got a gap after we finished a project,” she answered. “I’ll be here for a week. Go, get refreshed and come back.”

Padma was a lively girl. At times, she could also get bossy. I used to get annoyed at some of her sarcastic jokes. There was another thing I knew about her—if she cracked too many jokes, that’s a danger sign and it means she’s up to something.

After dinner, I went to Padma’s room. The door was left open and she was sitting on a chair in front of a table. She didn’t seem to be reading or writing anything. Maybe she was thinking of doing something. I knocked on the door.

“Come sir! Come on in…and be seated,” she invited me.

I went in and sat on her bed.

“I was waiting for you, Anna,” she said.

“Is it? Tell me Padma, what’s new? I feel you’ve something up your sleeve,” I said, looking suspiciously at her.

She became silent for a while. And then, she spoke, “Anna, I’m going to drop a bombshell on my parents tomorrow.”

Bombshell? On Lok uncle and Nandi aunty? Hearing this itself was a thunderbolt. A loss-making business was bad enough for them.

“Bombshell?” I grimaced. ”What are you talking about?”

“I have a bf in Chennai. We want to get married. I came down to convince Achan and Amma,” she replied.

I was appalled. Misfortunes never came singly. Padma could also be foxed easily by some deceptive guys. I paused to take stock of the situation. Hmm…a worst-case scenario would be: she’s already married to a loser and we can’t do anything about it. But she’s probably not married yet. And we don’t yet know whether the guy’s a loser or not.

She said that he was her friend’s cousin and that they had met at a party.

“Party? Didn’t uncle ban you from going to parties?” I asked, annoyed at her explanation. Lok uncle was quite conservative.

“Well, it was my best friend’s birthday party. How could I miss it?” she tried to justify her stand. She went on, “Want to know his positives?”

“Tell me, I’m eager to know,” I said, with contempt.

“Jagan is handsome, empathic and caring. These days, you won’t find a guy with these qualities,” she said excitedly.

“Oh! Really? What about his negatives?” I asked.

“Okay, I concede that he’s jobless right now,” she replied as if this was a debate. “He’s the only son of divorced parents. But he grew up in a boarding school, so he’s much disciplined. He has excellent business acumen. He had approached many venture capitalists but was unable to convince them. Maybe he can join Achan’s business after our marriage.”

She had already made wonderful plans to accommodate her boyfriend into the family. But I wondered whether her father’s business would even exist then, to have it run by this guy.

Lok uncle and Nandi aunty hadn’t told Padma that the business problems were serious and that uncle was even in danger of going bankrupt. Padma’s behavior was in fact, disappointing. Her parents were struggling out here and they didn’t want her to get worried about it. They wanted her to be happy. Yes, she was happy now, but her happiness was going to hurt everybody else. I couldn’t let that happen. I had to put a spoke in her wheel.

“Padma, I wouldn’t always approve of your parents’ way of doing things. I think children must be informed about crises taking place in the family. This is an absolute must for them to become more responsible, and so that they value relationships.” She looked at me indifferently. She had probably expected me to disapprove of her plans. I continued, “Your father’s business is in the red and if things don’t improve soon, it will have to be closed down. And that’s why I’m here—to make a last ditch effort.”

That caught her attention. She looked at me quite seriously. I appealed to her not to give them a shock tomorrow. “Your parents will not be able to bear it. We need to talk about a few things. I’ll speak to you tomorrow. Good night,” I said.

Before she could reply, I got up and left her room, closing the door behind me.

***

The next morning, I saw Nandi aunty looking quite moody, at the breakfast table. Did Padma tell her anything about her plan? I decided not to ask aunty anything. After breakfast, I took my lunch box and got out of the house to catch an auto. I had to go to the factory early. Radha would meet me at 10 am. I had to make some arrangements before that.

Thinking about punctuality, I remembered my friend Prashanth, who worked in an investment bank in New York. He had once told me about the differences between Americans and Indians in the context of work.

“Americans always do their homework. Like…they are well prepared for a conference, for instance. But we guys never do our homework. We always make some shabby preparation at the last minute. Likewise, they are quite systematic and are also assertive. They know how to have their way. And they are punctual.

“But apart from these qualities, I think we are as good as them, or even better than them. If we can correct these weaknesses of ours, we can improve by leaps and bounds. Our country itself will make deep inroads into becoming the biggest economy in the world.”

Could the Indian economy become the biggest in the world, as Prasanth had anticipated? Time would tell.

On reaching Lakshmi, I got the men ready to answer any questions which Radha would ask. I also arranged to have detailed process charts that she might want. “A consultant is coming to help us out,” I told them. They enthusiastically followed my instructions.

Radha arrived ten minutes early and began to look around the place. Anxious about her observations, I almost failed to notice her beautiful dark green salwar-kameez and light green dupatta. She had tied up her long black hair which was as beautiful as her face. A red rose in that hair would have been fabulous.

Standing inside the factory, her black eyes caught each and every motion involved in the manual work. She didn’t care to wipe off the beads of sweat which formed on her forehead. With eyebrows raised, she was observation personified.

Watching the workers toil it out in the heat, she became sweaty. We walked away from the noise. She then looked at me, smiled, and said, “Abhinav, have you noticed how Sachin Tendulkar plays the cover drive?”

Sachin? Cricket? What’s that go to do with this, I wondered.

Without waiting for my response, she continued, “He makes the shot look so easy to play. Have you seen Lata Mangeshkar sing? She makes it look so easy.

“My point is that these workers don’t look like experts on their jobs. They are straining themselves needlessly. The result is slow production and fatigue, which means low productivity. I think many of their motions can either be eliminated or simplified. Do you get me?”

“Hmm…yes I do,” I answered.

I began to think about this aspect. And then, I asked her, “So what do you think we should do? Carry out a Work Study and train these guys?”

“Bingo!”

After looking around the factory once more, she found something wrong with the layout. “Some of the movements must be done away with, in order to reduce congestion,” Radha added.

We finally decided to carry out a work study and make some adjustments in the layout of the factory. A few thoughts then began to cloud my mind. It was real hot in the factory. Her parents had plans to get her married. What if a prospective groom came in the next few days to see her? What if she looked all tiresome and dehydrated because of the heat over here? I began to feel guilty for bringing her into this.

“Radha, you’ve been facing the heat out there and you are tired. If you participate in the Work Study tomorrow, what’ll happen to your health?” I expressed my concern to her.

She looked at me as if she knew I would say something like that. But I felt that these concerns of mine were quite genuine. I continued, “I mean, seriously, if a groom comes to see you and you look all tired and worn out…just imagine…”

“Don’t bother about all that, Abhinav. Look, I am an ‘engineer’ by profession. This is part of my job. Besides, you know me. Once I undertake to finish a piece of work, I will make sure I complete it. So, don’t worry!” she said to me, emphasizing the word ‘will’. She hardly looked concerned. Her response made me feel less guilty.

***

During the lunch break, Radha asked me, “Abhinav, what do you think is India’s greatest problem today?”

“Um…poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, low per capita income, low national income, corruption…actually, it’s a vicious circle. One thing leads to another,” I replied.

“No. The answer is lack of active patriotism among the people,” she corrected.

“Active…patriotism? What’s that?” I asked.

“Well, different people may have different ideas about active patriotism. Here is my take on that. I mean to say that there are two kinds of patriotism in a citizen. One is passive patriotism. That’s what many of us have today. Our patriotism becomes active only during any major cricket match involving India; or when there is a threat to the security of our country; or in the event of a calamity.

“Remember the nuclear tests which had been conducted by India? It was followed by the economic sanctions imposed by other nations on us in 1998. Our government issued the ‘Resurgent India Bonds’ to raise money from loyal NRIs from all over the world. The issue was a huge success. Remember the Kargil War in 1999? The amount of donations received by the Government during that time was enormous. The same was the case when the Tsunami struck in 2004.”

“Yes, that’s true,” I agreed.

“By active patriotism,” Radha continued, “I mean each and every moment, we are thinking of giving our best to the nation. We are always aware that we have a contribution to make to our mother for the love and care she is giving to us. It does not mean that we should become jingoists or extreme nationalists. But it does mean that an Indian flag is always hoisted up in our hearts, in our souls and we must constantly be aware of our responsibility to our country, even in our sleep.

“Active patriotism makes us work harder, not for money, but for our country. The motive power has to be love for the nation. We know in our hearts, that if we go the extra mile, our people will benefit from it. That phenomenon, that emotion, amongst the masses, will sky rocket the nation’s productivity like anything. And that emotion is what we are lacking in.”

Contrarian thinking, I thought about Radha. But this was something to chew over.

“Are you ready to die for your country?” she asked me.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Think about it. And I’ll ask you again later,” she said to me.

After lunch, she gave us detailed instructions to arrange for conducting the Work Study. She assured me of her presence to overlook the study to be conducted the following day. She then left the place.

We didn’t have the time to carry out a detailed study. We had to act fast. We were running out of time and money. We all hoped for a breakthrough soon.

I was constantly updating Lok uncle on our present status. “We’ll pay attention to the ergonomics. This will minimize the fatigue of the workers and improve their productivity,” I assured him. “Increased productivity would address the problem of high costs of operation.”

Lok uncle was satisfied with the direction of our efforts. He seemed to believe in me. But like every owner, he would be happy only if we posted something green on the board.

***