The Pani Puri Boy

That was the day I decided on visiting my grand parents in Gudiwada after getting an american visa and before flying to US for the first time....

The far end of Platform number 3 in secunderabad was spotted with a good number of passengers who were waiting for the door of the unreserved compartment to be opened. There was enough time for the Bangalore express to depart, but people were already waiting in large numbers to get into the general compartment.
It was 6’O clock in the evening and the door was opened and within no time all the seats were occupied by the passengers.
I got myself into one of those single seats, keeping in my mind that I haven’t have to share it with anybody else.
The seat opposite to me was occupied by a boy, about 13 years old.
He was lean, had unkempt hair and wore dirty clothes. He kept spitting out of the window in the way only few people can.
He looked reckless and kept humming some peppy mass numbers from the tollywood.
“Ekkadki pothunnav akka?” was something I did not expect.
“Gudiwada” I replied in very short sentences in order not to continue the conversation.
“Poddunna enta timeki eltam aadki?” he kept the conversation going.
“Poddunna 6 avutundi” This time I replied more inattentively.
He had a worried look at his 30Rs electronic watch and bore an expression of calculating something.

The train left sec'bad by 9’O Clock and the general compartment was already teeming with passengers.
A few of them settled in the aisle and a few others, who felt it rather undignified to do the same, tried to ask for a share in the seats.
I saw one such passenger, an obese 45 year old man, approaching my seat. I tried not to look at him, fearing that I have to share my seat with him.
The boy in my front did not think twice before offering his seat to him. I pitied the boy, for the man, almost occupied the whole seat.
The boy then slipped underneath the seats, to get himself into a sleep. He struggled to get any sleep as it was not so comfortable.
He returned into his first position, this time almost on the edge of the seat, for the man already occupied the whole seat.
I somehow felt bad on part of the boy, but he did not even have such a feeling towards the man he shared the seat with.
“Ye oorra needi?’, The obese man queried the boy.
“Madi yijayawada. Nenu Hyderabad lo pani jesta” replied the boy.
“Yem panira?”, the old man continued.
“Pani puri ammuta saar.” The boy announced proudly.
“Yentostundira rojuki??” the old man kept asking questions like a lawyer.
“Rojuki yaabhai roopayalostai” the boy told him with a sheepish smile.

“Water bottles…aa water bottles..aa thanda thanda water bottles..” the water vendor managed to maneuver the crowd in the compartment,
shouting in a typical railway Jargon. I was not particularly impressed with his management skills but was forced to buy one water bottle for having not planned
to get my own bottle from home. The boy bought a bottle for himself.
“12 rs per liter”, I felt like cursing the finance minister for such outrageous price tags for commodities which we can’t live without.
“Eamma, konchem neellu istava??” I was brought back into this world by some voice.
Before I could say yes or no, the Boy offered him, his bottle.

The train stopped at some station and they said that it won’t stop for more than 2 minutes. The train will not stop for the next 2 hours and anybody who had to have something for dinner had to quickly run along the platform and get some Tiffin. The boy wanted to eat something too. I agreed to get him something and managed to scurry across the platform to get us two plates of Idly.
I wan hungry enough to ignore the quality of the Idlies. It was when a few more people entered the bogie there were a few kids in them. The Pani Puri boy ate one idly and when he saw the kids looking at the Idlies avariciously, offered them the rest.
I was shocked to see his action, because he knows that he will not get anything to eat for sometime.

Even after the obese man got down at some XYZ station, he did not stop offering his seat to the kids around him.
He chatted with them and joked around with everybody.
The boy smiled at every other person and shared whatever he had.
He did not think about anything beyond one day in future.
He did not complain peevishly about anything.
My opinions about the boy started to change rapidly.
I suddenly realized that we have to learn so many things from this young Pani Puri boy.
He looked like a young Buddha to me.

He taught many of us who earn a 1000 times more than him and yet find it difficult to be happy for even one minute.
He taught many others who search for happiness everywhere else in the world, that it is within us.
He taught me the true meaning of life is to love everybody and to share whatever is possible for you.

I sincerely thank the Pani Puri boy for the lessons he taught.

Tortise/Hare story...................

Friends today I will narrate u a story that will bring some points into light……..so follow them and hope u will implement them which gives u success………….

lessons.... from a twist in the tortoise / hare story many folds and see what is the final moral.

Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster. They decided to settle the argument with a race.

They agreed on a route and started off the race. The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time.

Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race. He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep.


The tortoise plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ.

-The hare woke up and realised that he'd lost the race. The moral of the story is that slow and steady wins the race. This is the version of the story that we've all grown up with. But then recently, someone told me a more interesting version of this story.

It continues... The hare was disappointed at losing and did some soul-searching. He realised that he'd lost the race only because he had been overconfident, careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there's no way the tortoise could have beaten him. So he challenged the tortoise to another race. The tortoise agreed.

This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles. The moral of the story? Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady.

If you have two people in your organisation, one slow, methodical and reliable, and the other fast and still reliable at what he does, the fast and reliable chap will consistently climb the organisational ladder faster than the slow, methodical chap. It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be fast and reliable.

But the story doesn't end here...

The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realised that there's no way he can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted. He thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly different route.

The hare agreed. They started off. In keeping with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until he came to a broad river. The finishing line was a couple of kilometres on the other side of the river.

The hare sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime the tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race. The moral of the story?

First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency. In an organisation, if you are a good speaker, make sure you create opprtunities to give presentations that enable the senior management to notice you.

If your strength is analysis, make sure you do some sort of research, make a report and send it upstairs. Working to your strengths will not only get you noticed, but will also create opportunities for growth and advancement.

The story still hasn't ended....

The hare and the tortoise, by this time, had become pretty good friends and they did some thinking together. Both realised that the last race could have been run much better. So they decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time.

They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank. There, the tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on his back. On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they reached the finishing line together.

They both felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they'd felt earlier. The moral of the story? It's good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless you're able to work in a team and harness each other's core competencies, you'll always perform below par because there will always be situations at which you'll do poorly and someone else does well.

Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant core competency for a situation takes leadership.

There are more lessons to be learnt from this story...

Note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure. The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as he could.

In life, when faced with failure, sometimes it is appropriate to work harder and put in more effort. Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try something different.
And sometimes it is appropriate to do both.

The hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson. When we stop competing against a rival and instead start competing against the situation, we perform far better.

When Roberto Goizueta took over as CEO of Coca-Cola in the 1980s, he was faced with intense competition from Pepsi that was eating into Coke's growth. His executives were Pepsi-focussed and intent on increasing market share 0.1 per cent a time. Goizueta decided to stop competing against Pepsi and instead compete against the situation of 0.1 per cent growth. He asked his executives what was the average fluid intake of an American per day? The answer was 14 ounces.

What was Coke's share of that? Two ounces. Goizueta said Coke needed a larger share of that market. The competition wasn't Pepsi. It was the water, tea, coffee, milk and fruit juices that went into the remaining 12 ounces.

The public should reach for a Coke whenever they felt like drinking something. To this end, Coke put up vending machines at every street corner. Sales took a quantum jump and Pepsi has never quite caught up since. To sum up, the story of the hare and tortoise teaches us many things.

Chief among them are

- fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady;
- work to your competencies;
- pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers
- never give up when faced with failure;
and finally,

- compete against the situation - not against a rival