"KARMA AIN'T A BITCH....
Karma is a “funny business”, that seems so hard to
accept at times – but its full of surprises. Here is my little bit…
Once upon a time, I had an assignment to visit a factory for some consultative
work. It involved understanding how the factory worked, the processes &
cost structures etc.
Somehow (possibly due to some history with consultants!) the managers there,
with support from their boss, decided to play it hard on me. They would only
answer questions I asked, that too just to the point and only minimal
interaction.
As you may be aware, consulting outcomes are often determined by the quality of
data & the conversations that happen with client-side teams.
While I had the brief to suggest creative ways to come out
of their current challenges, the factory team seemed to have a brief to “cooperate
to the minimum”. I spent two days trying to get the people to speak, and on the third day by lunch break
I was contemplating packing up, admitting defeat.
The lunch bell rang, and people filed out to the canteen
while I was left sitting in my allocated cubicle, in deep thought, flustered
and about to give up… but hoping for a miracle.
Suddenly someone tapped my shoulder from behind, startled I turned
around to find myself face to face with one of the team leaders from the
factory. He had a file in his hands that he dropped on my table saying…” …here
is the data you have been asking for and the boys haven’t given you…”.
Delighted as I was, perplexed too, I asked “ sir, what is
this and why are they not cooperating…?”
“The factory boss is into heavy politics with the company
leadership, its hard to explain in a short time like this. Just note down the
data you want from this file & let me vanish before they catch me with you”
he said with a grin on his face.
What I needed was simple & didn’t take even a minute to
note.
Handing over the file to him I said “ Thanks sir, but why are you doing this
for me?”
To my utter surprise, he put an arm around my shoulder and
said…
“ Ashim, you don’t remember what you did for me – but it
launched me in my career”
“Oh tell me please, I
have no idea about what you are saying ” …I mumbled, still surprised.
“Ashim, do you remember you worked in that office in 1997…in
Mumbai? “
I nodded in acknowledgement… “ yes, but what about it?...”
“Well one Saturday, I was called there for a job interview
and I had forgotten to make extra copies of some documents, like I had been instructed
in advance by the interviewing person.
I used to be very shy back then, and was waiting outside the interviewer’s
cabin, to be called inside. There were very few people in the office, and as you happened to pass by, you looked at me, a stranger with a lost look sitting outside that
room.”
“ I don’t know if you remember, you stopped, turned around,
wished me good morning and asked me if I was looking for something…”…
“…and I blurted out in relief– asking you if I could get access to a
copier machine somehow – admitting that I had forgotten to take the instructed
extra copies. You asked me to follow you to a copier room on the floor below
& helped me get those copies made on a machine I had no clue how to operate.”
“Well I made it to my first corporate job that day…and rest
is history as they say - Ashim, I can never forget that”
I was like… “ What?! I have no idea what you are talking
about… must have been if you say so. And yes, we used to work most Saturdays in
that office, but I have no recollection of this thing you just mentioned…”
“But hey – THANK YOU! I was just hoping for a miracle – and you
happen to be my rescue angel today!...and please go now else I might also
become the reason for an early end to your corporate career…hahaha”
Needless to say, our friendship has come a long way since.
He went abroad a few years later and is a very senior executive in a
respectable firm out there.
Recently I got a
chance to narrate this story to his son, who came visiting to Mumbai.
I said to him,
“ … you want to know how your father and me became friends?...”
“ …well to start with, KARMA aint a bitch…”
Karma ain’t a bitch, but a mirror — it reflects back exactly
what you give it.
Ask me, I know how.
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