That day the parantha guy in my locality
shut shop. The counter was right in the open space of a busy grocery shop. They
had rented out the space to him. His paranthas were yummy. He used whole wheat
and very less of grease. It was quiet healthy. He home-delivered too. He was a
delhi-ite, came from a good background, was good looking, smart and spoke good
English. I used to talk to him a lot, especially because when I was in Delhi I
enjoyed these road-side dhabaparanthas a lot, and this guy brought in the same
Delhi flavour to Pune. When he shut shop, I was disappointed.
When I asked the grocery shop guys what
went wrong, they told me “He started late in the day. Most customers around the
locality wanted Paranthas in the morning – from around 8am to 11am. After that
people leave for work. You see, we open at 7am, and the time between 7am and
10am is the busiest. But he opens post 12 in the afternoon. Who wants paranthas
after 12?” I asked if they ever told him that. They said they didn’t. “Didn’t
he ever ask?” I persisted, but they shrugged their shoulders, said he didn’t,
and got back to their job.
I wondered why it never occurred to him
to ask. I wonder why people don’t ask more often than they should. This guy had
a roaring business running at his backyard. He could see that they were
successful. All he needed to do was turn around and ask.
While in a crisis situation, people look
out for an ‘expert-advice’. These
days, an ‘expert-advice’ have become a fad. People read fat books, hire a
lawyer, consult a consultant, brain-storm in a groups and search for gurus.
Tech friendly people browse the internet and Google stuff. While all these are
absolutely great ways of getting ideas and solutions, I often wonder what has
happened to the great-old-practice of just turning around and asking the people
nearer to you.
A person going to a marriage consultant
to sort out his marriage problem need to first ask his wife what is it that
‘we’ want?
Someone trying out cooking for the first
time needs to ask his mom before turning pages of a recipe book or looking up
internet.
Youths going for career consultation
needs to first talk to his parents and ask them what they think he is good at.
By doing this, you not only get a more
personalized view point and perspective, you also increase the bandwidth of
your trustees.
Ask
for help. Ask for advice. Ask for a second opinion. Ask for support. Ask for
love. You will be surprised to know how many people are willing to give you all
that and more.
Just
turn around and ask!
