Day to Day Roadside Experts

Lost in my thoughts I was walking on my way to office in morning. I reached the bus stop and stood there waiting for my next bus. Traffic jams were at it’s peak, people were rushing for office, one by one roadside shops were opening – in between all this, suddenly my eyes stopped at a sight. I guess it is the everyday sight for all of us, nothing extraordinary. A lady was preparing “gajras” – flower garlands to be tied on hair. I stood near to that lady and started observing her. There is always a special technique for doing everything. I am not aware of the technique in which she was tying those gajras but she was doing it with great speed, accuracy and dedication and all these qualities really impressed me.

Many times I have noticed the “Hot chips” shop where I have observed the person who will be grating the vegetables, put them into hot boiling oil and then fry them. He too does it with great speed and perfection. I have seen the cooks of small restaurants as the masters of cooking and packing foods.

We all go to hypermarts for grocery shopping. During the time period from 29^th of one month to 3^rd of next month, all these marts will be over crowded with so many people standing in queue waiting for their turns. We just pay for our things and leave; but imagine about the person who actually does the billing. They have to read the code and price for each and every item, create the bill, take the money which is most of the time given by cards, swipe them, get the receipt signed or give the proper change, and then repeat the same process for all other customers. We shout at them, if they take more time. But for a second, just think about them, they have to maintain proper records of everything sold, they have to be really alert for if they miss anything, their pay will get reduced.

We see the delivery boys of restaurants and eating joints, driving not those high-end bikes but simple bikes to reach the different areas and deliver the food on time. We can take driving classes from them. The newspaper person who distributes the newspaper early morning to every house, he throws the paper at a perfect single shot at the doorstep; the mineral water guy who carries around 6-10 mineral water cans in his luna and goes from house to house and distributes them.

All these people cannot be considered anything less than experts. We acknowledge many people who excel in their respective fields but there exists people who may not be famous but are nothing less than experts, they are the day to day roadside experts. They also do their jobs with full focus and honesty.

No job can be considered less important. Forget about growth and development; just for the survival, so many things should exist. Every single task by every single person is equally important for the existence of society.

I just remember the quote from Robin Sharma’s book “The Leader who had no title”. I don’t remember the exact words but I remember the message. It was something like this: "Whatever you do, do it in such a way as if you are the one who can do that particular job in the best possible way in the whole world. If you think this way and put all your effort then you are definitely going to succeed."