Lessons Learnt From Those Trees

Posted on January 23, 2015 by badri

A few months ago, I was in Yosemite Valle, California, USA . This is a huge forest with 800 miles in hiking trails. The Sequoia family of trees with their huge trunks draw special attention of the visitors. The tallest tree is 285 feet in height.

As I looked around I felt, each of these trees have meaningful lessons to teach.

Wawona Giant Sequoia

One of the trees, Wawona giant sequoia is 210 feet tall, 92 feet in circumference with a diameter of 30 feet. As you can see in the image, the tree fell down from its roots. This happened in 1969 and it is still lying there as the wood is resistant to decay. It is as good as dead, but so what? While living, it succeeded in maintaining its world record. Therefore even after death, it is a darling of everyone who passes it by. In fact, the authorities allow visitors to play around and hug this eternally sleeping tree.

These giant sequoia trees understand that to survive, it is very important to share and live together as a society. They are aware that for survival, every tree needs water and nutrients which is why they grow very close to one another. They permit the roots of one giant sequoia to fuse with the roots of another. This underground activity enables the giant trees not only to survive in close proximity to each other but live together with equal rights.

In fact there is a set of two trees called “Faithful Couple” who believe to share every thing

Faithful Couple

with the partner. They are so close to each other that one side of their trunks is almost like a common wall of the two trunks. They respect the presence of the neighbour. They demonstrate their ability to share the components for survival such as water, sunlight and nutrients like a true couple. They believe in togetherness in pleasure and sorrow, “sukh-dukh mein saath saath”

California Tunnel

There is a tree called California Tunnel, one of the two living trees in the area. The tree in the dense jungle does not hesitate to permit the people to pass through its tummy. A large cavity in the huge trunk is wide enough to let a SUV pass through it. Convenience to others is more important to the tree than its own inconvenience. Similarly there is a tree called Clothspin which has a tunnel in its body as big as 40ft in height.

At one site, there are 3 sequoia trees together named 3 Graces. Their roots are inter-mingled. Research confirms that they survive together and if they were to fall, they would fall together. Together they live and together they would die. “jiyenge saath saath, marenge saath saath”

Writer : Badri Baldawa

Editor : Meeta Kabra

Is Education Over-rated?

Posted on January 2, 2015 by badri

“Our performance efficiency is 99.9999% – six sigma ranking. We have 5,000 members working in coordination. Out of 400,000 transactions every day, the error factor is 1 in every 20,000,000” said the President of a service organisation.

This is the organization which collects lunch boxes (dabbas) in the morning from the homes spread over 60 by 30 km city called Mumbai. These lunch packs are then delivered to their owners working in various nooks and corners of Mumbai. Post lunch, they collect the empty boxes and get them back to the respective houses by the same evening

This organisation is not a giant corporate like IBM, Wal-mart or Coca cola. Almost all its members are illiterate and school drop-outs. It has functioned for over 125 years and gets only more efficient by the day.

The process is extremely complicated and needs perfect coordination. They don’t use technology nor do they use fuel-driven vehicles. They work on foot or use cycles and suburban trains to transfer the boxes over 65-70kms every day, making it a 100% eco-friendly system. It is a perfect example of the most complicated job done in the simplest way.

To provide better coordination and thus efficiency, the delivery people are divided in different groups. In the process, the dabbas change hands 6 times. But they have a system to ensure there is no mix-up in the process. Their lack of education has not held them back in following the best lessons taught in the world’s top ranked management schools like Harvard, Oxford and so on. On the contrary, this set-up is taken up as a case study by the said schools.

They believe in fixed prices. No favours or bias in price.

There’s no gossip at work. Even when Prince Charles wanted to talk to the members, they refused to have a discussion with him while they were on duty. Their working impressed him so much, that Prince Charles invited two of them to his marriage in 2005 at par with Queen of Gwalior.

Each member carries aprx 40 dabbas (boxes), weighing 60 to 65kgs on their head most of the day. For each building, one delivery person is assigned the responsibility of collecting the boxes. These boxes are then assembled at the local suburban train station, and are reallocated to groups based on the destination train station.

At the destination stations, the boxes again are regrouped to specific building (And floor of building in some cases). Freshly cooked meals are thus delivered from home to the customer within 3 hours commute over foot, cycles and train.

As one can imagine they had to develop a system to identify which box needs to be go where. They introduced the most practical coding system which is marked on each box. It identifies who would collect each box from which building in which suburb. The code also includes who would deliver information – right down to the floor of a particular building. This coding system can be understood by the most uneducated person and at the same time leaves an almost zero margin for error!

They have also created a cost free advertisement system for themselves. Every member has to wear the white cap which by itself has become a logo. This identification has proven to be a boon as they are blocked by no authority/security. Everyone respects their need for punctuality to ensure the boxes reach the office employees well in time for lunch.

All members have to strictly follow the rules and any deviation attracts a penalty. For example, if a delivery person is found on duty without a cap or any customer makes a complaint against them they are penalized the same day. Penalty has to be paid the same day to be able to continue with the delivery, the next day.

They do not have any employer-employee relationship. Each member is a shareholder and hence a stake holder in the operation. They have had no labour strike during 125 years of the association’s existence. The punctuality, complaint record and output all count towards their share of pooled funds and reward. They are all part of an association which collects a small fee every month, which in turn is fully donated for a social cause.

Minimum overheads and optimum output is the lesson I learn from these hard-working dabbawalas.

This example proves that literacy and technology is not essential to achieve perfection. It is whole-hearted devotion and the right attitude which matters most.

Written : Badri Baldawa

Edited : Meeta Kabra

What Next – A Dilemma

Posted on June 13, 2014 by badri

On certain occasions in life you are at a dilemma – do I satisfy my desires or take overall responsibilities. At such points, it is essential to curb our feelings for the larger good. To do what I really want to do would surely give me pleasure. But the pleasure I would get in fulfilling the desires of the entire family would be incomparable. If I have an opportunity to get ‘incomparable pleasure’, why should I get satisfied with just ‘pleasure’?

In 1965, I appeared for B.Com exams and was contemplating what was best for me to do thereafter. I had to decide whether to join business or go for a job or pursue further studies. The ground reality was that we were ten brothers and four sisters. Except one sister who was married, the others were younger to me. They needed to be educated, married and ultimately settle in their career. There was always a financial crunch at home – even for essential day to day needs. We desperately needed regular income in the family.

I always wanted to run my own business and I had the confidence that I had acumen for it. It could then be debated – why did I not join dad’s mining business? The mining business was not giving returns. To make it profitable, processes needed to be mechanised for which an investment of Rs.15-20 crores was needed. We did not have adequate sources nor securities to get the large funds to run the mining business.

The maximum financial help I was offered was enough to set up a grocery shop – a very common business occupation at that time. Though business could give better earnings, there was no guarantee of any fixed minimum returns. A single wrong decision in business could ruin the dreams of the entire family. It was too big a risk for me to take. I had to play a safer game. Therefore to ensure that all the family members are taken care of, I decided against setting up a business.

The other option was to study further which would result in a further financial burden. The family would continue to struggle for at least 3-4 additional years.

Employment gives regular assured income. It was better to go for assured income by doing a job. At any later time, as and when I saw the family settling down, I could take the risk of fulfilling my dream of experimenting with my own business. Under the circumstances, I was convinced that doing a job would be the thing to do. It was a compromise and of course, not a very happy situation to be in. I was still in dilemma

Just then, the results of my final B.Com were declared. I had secured the top rank in the University. After getting the results, I went home, took my mother’s blessings and headed to the office room. I missed my dad. He was away on one of his trips to the mines. By this time, a few of our family, friends and neighbours who had heard of my results had already collected in the office with a garland to honour me. One common question was, “Badri, what do you want to do next?” True, I now had to take a final decision.

I was blessed with a surprise. My dad had unexpectedly returned from his trip and entered the office, full of well-wishers. He was not aware of my results. He heard it from the people already collected there. I could read his face. He was a proud father. As if the garland was waiting for my dad. He picked it up and garlanded me. What an honour!

The same question was asked again, “what next?” I was still confused. Before I could answer, dad answered. “With such bright results, what other option would he prefer other than to take the family responsibility after me.” I was happy that dad had come to my rescue and took a decision for me.

Dad looked at me and continued “Beta, you study as much as you want. No limits. Leave it to me, I will handle the affairs at home. You don’t have to worry about the expenses. I have energy and strength to take care of all of that. If you study now, you can take care of the family tomorrow!” I was lucky to have such a dad!

A very sensitive occasion for me. My dilemma was no more. I got what I ultimately wanted. Study further. I thought for a while, I could continue study now and still earn later with higher status and earnings. But if I went for a steady income now, it would be very difficult to go for studies later on.

It therefore was decided that I would go for further studies as long as dad had energy.This was the opportunity to show my worth in studies and then take up the challenge of supporting the entire family. It also reminded me: in business I might earn, but it would be temporary because there can always be losses. But if I acquire knowledge, it would be my permanent asset and I would never lose it. That asset would help me later, whether I go for employment or business.

Vidya Dhanam Sarwa Dhana Pradhanam.

Author: Badri Baldawa

Editor: Meeta Kabra

Affordable Traditions

Posted on March 29, 2014 by badri

“This is the marriage season, I will be very busy”, said a neighborhood moneylender. How do weddings make a lender busy?

Did you get it?

Weddings obviously mean business to many like caterers, decorators, jewelers, etc. We missed out another category of businessmen who look forward to the wedding season – The moneylender.

The affluent lay down certain traditions to show-off their prosperity. In the process, probably they do not realise the quantum of damage they cause to society.

A practical example. In our town, at any wedding, the entire community was invited for three full course meals. ‘Sigree noota’ – all the members in every family were on the invite list. This translated to 200-250 people on two of these meals and 400 people for one of them because people from the neighbouring townships were also invited.

Funnily enough, for those who could not attend, a parcel to their home! Obviously, these meals mean a lot of money. Someone who probably wanted to boast about his wealth must have started this and with time this became tradition.

Those who did not have adequate sources of income, also had to host three meals. They were worried that if they failed to host 3 meals they would be looked down upon by the community. Their fear was valid.

Whenever invited by the affluent class, even the members of the low income profile families would go for the dinner. Not attending was considered as an unfriendly act. Once they went, it was understandably difficult to avoid inviting when there was a wedding at their own home – an endless chain.

Think of the amount of harm this tradition caused. Those who could not afford, borrowed money. Some sold or pledged their homes to finance the meals. A few had to convince their wife and daughters-in-law to sell or pledge their ornaments and jewelry.

Obviously, loans from banks was not available for weddings. Therefore, they had to borrow from private lenders. The maximum amount a moneylender would lend would be about half the value of the property pledged. An additional condition was that if the loan was not repaid before the amount accumulates to the total value of the property, the owner lost his right to the house or the jewelry. The interest on private borrowing was anything from 24% to 36% (usually monthly compounded) per year. This means over a period of 2 to 3 years, the amount repayable would double. In short, within 2-3 years if the loan was not repaid, hard earned pledged items became the lender’s property.

Why? What is the root cause? Is it just to maintain a tradition in the society? Will the society for whom this has been done come to his rescue? No. Just forget it, they would be busy gossiping!

The irony is it hardly made any difference to the guests, but the host was doomed. It wouldn’t be surprising if, in certain cases, it led to suicides. What is the point of following such traditions? Inspite of knowing the consequences, no one dared to amend or rectify.

Justification : “why should I be the first one to defy tradition? Let someone else take the blame”.

Solution?

If we can sensibly act. For example, at my wedding in 1971, we were reasonably better placed financially and could have managed to host 3 meals easily. For me, this was an opportunity. I explained the above consequences to my dad. He was well aware of such unnecessary burden on some people in the community.

I suggested “Kakaji, why not we restrict the wedding celebration by hosting just one dinner? Let us take the blame for curtailing this tradition and the change could save someone”. My dad was in favor of a positive change in the society and he readily agreed.

Yeah, we did it! We changed over to all-in-ONE dinner for my wedding. It is almost 43 years since then and this system is followed to date!

This is just an example of one tradition at a wedding. Sure, there are many other such opportunities at weddings, but the same principle hold good for birthday celebrations, religious ceremonies, anniversary functions, death ceremonies, etc.

Value of return gifts is another classic example. If you can take a bold lead in curtailing them down, you have done a great service to society. My appeal to youngsters – Enjoy and Celebrate in life. But sensibly, curtail the formal events to the extent everyone in the society can afford.

I have constantly tried over 40 years ‘Take no gifts and give no gifts.” Some firm traditions of giving and accepting gifts have discontinued in the family. However, I was only partly successful. But you could do better, will you?

Written: Badri Baldawa Edited: Meeta Kabra

Joint Family Culture – An Experiment:

Posted on March 8, 2014 by badri

“Get married, stay independently and live your life.” – A message to all my brothers. In the 70s, such a statement was considered revolutionary, at least in our Marwari community!

Joint family structure has the advantage of members sharing each others’ responsibility. It also means that all members have equal rights on the total income made in the family, irrespective of the each one’s ability to contribute.

Gradually, with higher education, wider options of living standards, and modern lifestyle, slightest lethargy by any member wasn’t tolerated by those who contributed better to the family, especially financially. Even things like disparity in number of children and ratio of employed children, decided the status of a person in the family. With this, the ‘let go’ attitude and emotional factors started eroding to a large extent.

This created a class differentiation within a family. For some time they tried to suppress a lot of their individual desires. These suppressions accumulated and in course of time, burst into anger, frictions, and fights within the family.

Obviously, it started creating more conflicts and misunderstandings, ultimately leading to divisions in the family, with bitter arguments. The joint family concept started eroding at a fast rate. Even the large and absolutely rich brothers amongst families like Birla-Bangurs, Ambanis could not stay together.

In our own family in 1960s, two sensible, intelligent and experienced ladies would start fighting for no reason. We ultimately split but there was a surprise pleasant discovery for me. After the division, the grudges between the two women disappeared very fast. Love and affection got prime importance, once again. One wanted to help the other, even if it meant going out of way.

I learnt a lesson. It is better to keep a little distance to maintain good relations.

I was about 27 years old when my dad passed away. I have 6 brothers and 4 sisters (3 unmarried at that time). If my dad’s family stayed together, we would’ve been about 25-30 members under one roof – each, obviously with their independent opinion. Even if there were cordial relations, a divide amongst brothers would’ve been eventually, unavoidable.

The question then was if one should wait till misunderstandings develop, then fight and separate? I therefore thought, it was definitely better to stay separate from the beginning, well before frictions develop and thus retain the love and affection between the family members.

I resolved that I should take my father’s responsibility to educate, support and set-up my brothers to a stage, from where they can lead their own life. My aim was for every brother to have his independence in running his family. At the same time there should be cordial relation, love, and affection amongst us. It was a challenge for me to devise the right formula.

It was easier for rich and industrialist families to resolve this: Divide the assets; give each of them nice places to stay; allocate enough finance and provide a base to carry on business for their future. But the reality were different for me. Assets were zero, bank balance zero, properties zero and the business, a big zero too.

However I was determined to go with my philosophy to the best of my abilities.

Accept responsibility. In the absence of my father, fulfilling my own requirements would not be my priority, till I complete my responsibilities towards educating and settling my brothers and marrying my sisters.

Prefer a job over business. Given my situation, limited but assured income was better than having own business where income might be larger but uncertain.

It would be in everyone’s interest that I draw a line until which I should shoulder my brothers’ responsibilities. I should support till they get married and have a house of their own. Thereafter each brother should stay independently and live their own life.

Initially since all of them might not have enough funds to buy a house, to those who need, I would extend them financial support to the extent it was possible for me. Any financial help would be a loan. This was so that they respect the value of money and so that they and their children could say it is ‘our own house’ instead of ‘tauji’s house’.

Since a home is an essential, to avoid undue financial burden in the initial stages of carrier, the loan would be interest free.

With the implementation of the above, every one was forced to realise his responsibility and be prepared to standby for anyone who needed help. There were hardly any arguments between brothers or their families. Every one was at liberty to decide what is best for their individual family, without any interference from others.

In today’s lifestyle, even two married brothers staying together may not be practical. When I look back today, “once married, stay independently” was the right way to go between brothers. I am happy that my decision wasn’t proven wrong.

Written: Badri Baldawa                         Edited:  Meeta Kabra

My Philosophy of Studying

Posted on March 2, 2014 by badri

“If others can be University Gold Medalists, why can’t I?” was a question I challenged myself with in college. Initially, it sounded like a difficult dream. So what? If I am different, nothing is difficult.

Having decided to make my dream into a reality, I met a few examiners to find out what they looked for while assessing answers? The way I understood, they checked if –

all relevant points to the question are covered.
answers were written in own language, instead of rote answers from text books
new points/observations made were justified well

I figured, If properly worked out, it was not a difficult task to score well. I got excited and a burning desire to achieve this took root. Next, I had to challenge myself to get the best out of my abilities. My strategy was four fold –

Guru Samarpan: Take maximum guidelines from my teachers
Self-discipline: Be sincere to yourself and
Study Plans: Have a proper plan in place for studying
Approach at Examination Hall

To elaborate –

1. Guru samarpan: I surrendered to my professors and lecturers completely. Once the teachers realised that I am devoted to them, they started taking more interest in my queries and doubts. They were happy to share their books, their notes, their knowledge and even their home.
College library would lend only 2 books at a time. But my beloved lecturers gave me a free hand to borrow more books under their names.
For getting any doubts clarified, I had access to their office and home at any time, on any day even during holidays and long vacations

2. Self-discipline: I created self-interest and devised my own methods of studying. I was convinced that I didn’t study to just appear for exams, but I did it to understand the subject well. It was important for me to enjoy both studying and appearing for exams rather than considering them as a strain. That was my mental make-up.

3. Study Plans; To actually implement I devised the following Study Plans;

Studied each and every chapter in depth by referring to class notes and books written by various authors on the same subject. This brought new and complete insight in the topic.
Prepared my own notes from all the material read. This helped me retain and assimilate all the knowledge I accumulated. One cannot make own notes without understanding the subject well.
Made separate notes on the differences of opinion between various authors. A mention of these differences in the answers gave an edge over others’ answers and created a “different” impression to the examiner.
Created hints for answers. I summarised the notes in short hint format for each chapter and revised the short notes rather than going through the entire descriptive notes, every time I revised. Once you remember the hint, it is easy to write on the subject in detail because you know the subject well from your earlier hardwork. Also, it saves revision time and enables to cover all points on the subject, which is important to give complete answers.
Left no surprise element for the examinations. I did not believe in studying only the ‘selected’ or ‘expected’ questions just from exams point of view. I studied all the chapters so that I was ready to face any question. This does wonders for your confidence.
Studied round the year. I did not believe in studying just 30 or 60 or 90 days before examinations.
Made a proper timetable of subjects to be revised on each specific day for the last 4 weeks before exams.
Considered tackling examinations an excitement awaited and not a fear. Bindaas (Carefree) I would go for a movie the night before examinations, (certainly the day before the accountancy and statistics exams!)
Stayed cool and quiet just before exams and conserve energy.

4. Approach at Examination : At the Hall:

Avoided eleventh hour revision. I believe, a dominant part of what you retained whatever little studied at eleventh hour compared to what you have been studying throughout the year.
Allowed half-a-minute cool-down time before reading the question paper. That helps to balance mind, memory, and temperament.
Allowed about 10 minutes for unexpected long answers and last 10-15 minutes for rechecking the answers.
Allocated time to each question in proportion to the marks it carries. If 180 minutes are available to cover 100 marks, after allocating for rechecking and buffer-time, I devoted about 15-16 minutes for every 10 mark question.
Some times the answers to a question could be long, but considering the marks it carries, the examiner didn’t expect a lengthy answer. I kept the answers’ length as per the marks allocated. No point punishing and irritating the examiner by writing irrelevant and long answers.

I implemented the above strategy and got University First Rank in my B.Com. A similar approach helped me in getting all India level ranks in my professional exams – CA, ICWA and CS.

Dream your Best, Plan your Best and you will Achieve the Best