A STORY……. INTRODUCTION

I do not do things because “I am not one of them”. This is what I spoke to a friend. (I call him a friend now, or he has forced this upon me, in reality he was and will always remain my teacher or as I call “Prof” and by age too he is even older than my father.) I do not know why? But, this is it, now and more so after we were no more in a teacher student relationship legally (though I feel it would remain the same forever, “assumptions= constants”, but no more debates, it’s no more a behavioral finance class) we have been talking or better say discussing our “thoughtful moments”. He is a teacher by profession so I assume he would have many souls to share his heart and mind with. (I admit I do not have anyone or to put it in another way I do not share much with anyone but him) Secondly, he is not just another teacher but a teacher of repute and fame. (Repute & fame = teacher in a reputed institution of the world, himself an alumni of reputed institution of the world,  lots of publications, articles, papers and books. Add to this, number of prizes and awards.) The final word of his CV, if I made it; can get any work done in any part of inhabited world.( I remember, counting the number of pages in his CV, 12; once in his office, so by that standard this is the smallest intro he would have received in last so many years.) Therefore I assume I could be pardoned for my assumptions. Contrarily, this is the longest I have taken to introduce anyone ever in my life. My introductions end in: my friend, my relative, my supervisor, and my……; that is it. Anyways, I have not much experience in CV making. Forget and forgive, Prof + if you happen to read this. You know it Prof; I made a one pager, yes only one side of a page if by page you assume both sides. In fact to be more precise I was asked to make it, since the number of years I have spent in Educational institutions( thanks to my stars that I am born to such wonderful parents that I was able to carry for so many years) had made me eligible to APPLY or ask for my right, JOB. What an experience it was!! That one pager, it fetched me my first and last interview of life (till now and I wish I never face anymore) and it had lasted only 2 minutes or even less.

Interviewer: – A very short and Vague piece, friend? (While reading my CV)

Me:- Have not done much in life yet, to write about, Sir.

Interviewer: – CV drafting is an art….

Me:- I do not want to learn it, Sir. I am in pursuit of the art when I would not need CV            for myself.

Interviewer: – Let’s work together, welcome to …….. (Organization’s name) We shook hands and I left. The others in the room too did not ask a single word.

That was it!(What happened, I do not know, all that I realized at that moment was I had an offer in hand, and it gave me permission to celebrate with all human instincts in display.)

This incident has been quoted Prof, to make the reader understand; I am a novice and therefore all the blame and grudges he/she has after reading this piece about our “thoughtful moments” should be directed towards the GURU. Do not worry Prof, no one would read it in first place and secondly if any unfortunate soul trespasses this piece, he would not be bothered to yell at such a humble soul like me. Remember, you have made me to publish. I am keeping the promise, the only thing, I am publishing it at a place where you would never imagine, because for you publication means another world and I am putting it in EVERY MAN’S ARENA and at the same time NO ONE’S. I am lovin it!!!! Yes, before I arrive at the BODY of the article I would try to put all evidences which prove that I have been forced for this act and emotionally blackmailed to give in. That is why I said, I am lovin it, because after a long, long time I am under the syndrome called; BLAME IT ON RIO…..

One more aspect of this GURU& Shiysha relationship I would love to narrate. I can bet, against any odd, that apart from him NO teacher of mine would even remember me being a student of her/his. As I explained earlier, I have spent decent number of years in Educational Institutions and therefore correlation theory establishes that I would have been taught by many. They all were great teachers, matter of fact is; that I mention with my head held high to my better half that she/he was my teacher whenever they are on any TV Channel or there is an article by anyone of them in any publication. They were and are Significant, the non entity remains constant, ME. To establish this theory, I supply additional evidence to the reader (if any). This is not true only about the great minds who taught me, but also of smarter people around me in my classroom. Yes, I often get this remark from my classmates; “you too were there? Sorry, just cannot recollect” and many different version of the same expression. Thirdly, this is evident on the Facebook too. People, whom I have met and even talked, turn down my friend request. Naturally they do not remember the interaction and subsequently me. I hope its enough to establish the personality traits of “ME”. Now the question arises; how the M was inverted to make W (from ME to WE, the guru and shiysha, E is the constant in both ME and WE, the inverted pyramid).

One of the many, “exam time”; it was. Though it was one of the many, it stood apart. My grandfather passed away during it. It was much more nerving than the paper; exams I think one becomes used to while graduating from one class to another. The paper I needed to drop to visit my place, anybody’s guess, was taught by my friend Prof. (remember he was not a friend at that time, he was just another Prof, I had never had a word with). The grief or the love inspired me to enter his room. I explained him the situation. After an hour; I was writing the paper.

I received the question paper, and it had a surprise. (Great teachers are great because they always can surprise you) It had only one question. For next two hours one has to explain that very question. The Question was; “Explain the concept of FRUGAL thinking in Strategy?”

 

MY ANSWER– Any Innovation, as it is said necessity is the mother of invention is FRUGAL strategy in itself. I do not agree that making a NANO (the low cost car by tata’s) is frugal and 1000s of such examples all around the world. In fact the first car ever made was more frugal. And to know what really this strategy can do and how it works we just need to read HIND SWARAJ by M.K. GANDHI. To conclude, frugal strategy is applicable to all aspects of life rather than business only and anyways the COST word will force the world to go frugal. Remember, we have limited resources. Internet would play a major role in frugal thinking and strategies. It will be the game changer. Frugality compels me to end my paper here, and rush to my home, where frugally I am required more at this point of crisis in the family.

After about two weeks I was called to his office. He would have called me earlier too, but I returned to join classes only after 10 days. The answer papers were already marked, and everyone knew the grade. My grade for this particular paper was on hold. While walking towards his chamber, I was trying to recollect, what I had written in his paper about two weeks back. I had completely forgotten, the only saving grace was I had seen the question that was asked once again and I remembered that. Secondly, I knew I had HARLDY written much and therefore it was more strenuous to recall the answer. What will I speak? I was not sorry for anything, as the swarajist in me knew I had done no wrong, I knew the paper and even the concept asked quite well and always thought, planned to be frugal ( unfortunately still trying). I had done no wrong; he could have given an “F” grade if he did not like the answer; why he wants to talk to me; I could re-write the paper; and many more random ideas and imaginations circled in my mind. The only thing I wanted was, not to reach his office ever………

Sofia