I travel frequently on work, in It was a cold winter morning in the small town of With nothing better to do, I was looking around and something rather intersting caught my eye. A few feet from where I stood, was a rather ragged looking worker. He seemed to have just come back from a short break and was about to resume his unfinished work. His job '" carry out some repairs to a drain. By this time he had already fixed the drain cover and all that was remaining was to put about 20-30 cobblestones in place around the periphery of the drain cover. One by one the man started accumulating the cobblestones which he had previously removed and began inspecting them. The cobblestones were of similar shape but even from a few feet one could make out that there was considerable variation in the size of the cobblestones. The man then pulled out a measuring stick and measured the depth of the drain cover from the surface of the pavement. He then measured the cobblestones and selected one that would be the best fit. After ensuring that the levelling was right he cemented the cobblestone in place. He repeated the procedure for every cobblestone. The cold and wind made his work painstakingly slow but he continued diligently. I kept track of his progress for about 25 minutes till my bus arrived, making a mental note of observe the fruits of his labor when I returned. We returned rather late that evening but the next day I made it a point to check his work. Just as I had expected, it was flawless. The cobblestones he had cemented were perfectly levelled with the rest of the pavement. The color of freshly laid cement was the only give away that some work had been carried out. The job certainly wasn't one to die for, the conditions were miserable (and probably his wages as well) but the outcome was perfect!
Work culture
Posted in Work.
– July 4, 2006
4 Responses
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That is a nice post. Its true that people do live for a particular cause and yet dont expect any monetary gains. I work for Natural Disasters and try to save the lives of the people. We lay down plans and policies so that we can stop a disaster happening. We try to create a better world for our future generations. Sometimes, things doesnt work your way, but while one reads a post like yours, it definitly gives a inner strength and a meaning to life. I struggled a lot and still struggling to make my dream of a safer world a success and my greatest reward comes, when I bring smiles in the face of others. Anyway, hope you will look at our post on Disaster Management and do tell others also to see it. But I would request you to read it in total, then only, our post which are put after long research and struggle will have a meaning.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
Mainak Mazumder
Founder of MAINAKSWORLD
should give it to you for your observation and appreciation of a work well done
methinks its more to do with a passion for work, where people do what they like…passion always leads to perfection. That passion is what I feel missing here coz most of us are in teh wrong jobs…things wihch actually our parents or peers wanted us to do, and not what we ourselves wanted. I can see hoardes of engineers and doctors…one who could have been a painter…another a potter…a singer…a writer…many things more…anything but a doc or eng. so obviously, perfection takes a beating!
Great observation there Neel and i figure two things from the article one is observation itself, i mean who cares to observe such petty things? the other is that one can excel in whatever he does if he aspires perfection and commitment!
Awesome example for us Indians if we were serious of being a super power !
Hi, Neel. Whatever you have experienced was really touching. Would like to hear more of your such experiences further. I agree that work culture over here in India and that of Europe are very different. But I hope one day our INDIA would also achieve that point.