Intellectual Attention

Vinod Menon, Board Member, Sri Sri University, Odisha

One cup of noodles is all, that i wanted. I told Shabbir, the peon, to arrange to buy and bring me the noodles. As you know, the dehydrated noodles come in the cup, with packets of flavors. Yes, the cup of instant noodles. All it needs is some boiled water. Wait for five minutes, and then consume. Very simple. Or so, you guessed. This cup of instant noodles needs 300ml of water. And Shabbir the peon, brought to me exactly 150ml of boiled water. I had already waited for half an hour, for Shabbir to bring the cup of noodles. Then, now this ten minutes of wait for the water to boil. I was justified that some pressure was beginning in me. And when he arrived with small portion of water than needed, I became annoyed. On enquiry of his shabby and frivolous action, Shabbir gave the following answers, “I did not think about the quantity of the water that was needed”. I considered this attitude as very careless because, Shabbir knew the original size and content of the cup. Then he said that; the calculation of quantity of water, just did not occur in his head.

Many times you expect people to be effective at work, but the workers disappoint you at deliverables. Shabbir further said that he had delegated the work to Seema, inside the kitchen to boil water. And that, Seema the cook, decided the quantity of water. Now, the instant cup of noodles is turning out to be an important and major learning of Human Resource. Very casually, both of them invented the excuse. They ensured that the quality of water is small, so that there is no spill over of boiling water out of the cup, and that my safety was their concern. I sensed the dishonesty and cover-up. Is it very painful for people to admit their mistakes, once their error is busted. But then, if you will continuously, defend and justify your weakness, then when is correction possible?