Let the dogs bark!

Nothing could have been more exciting for a child in late 80s, when a dad said, ‘let us go and have an ice cream!’. This was all the more true for a small town like Changanacherry in Kerala where entertainment still meant going across to your neighbour’s house and play with your friends in their backyard instead of looking at a digital screen and searching for happiness in the incessant number of reels on the social media that keep us jailed in the Boolean world.

The shop where we got ice cream was a tiny room, roughly a ten-by-ten square. They had only three types of ice creams there, a cup, a ball, and a chocolate stick, all in Vanilla flavour. That itself was like heaven for people in that small town. This was when dad came up with an idea of a full-fledged ice cream parlour in Changanacherry. 

The shop was to sell more than fifteen flavours of ice creams and even more interesting were the sundaes which were a mix of flavours served in fancy glass bowls laced with syrups and other accompaniments like caramelized nuts, Tutti Frutti, cherries and what not?! Brilliant idea for those times. 

We are talking about more than three decades in the past. A business model such as this, obviously needed significant investment. Dad presented his vision to his known circle. Soon, two groups of opinion makers were formed, one that fully supported him and the other vehemently opposed him. The resistance was quite stiff that he had to use his entire charisma to pacify them. Many remained unconvinced and continued to discourage him from proceeding further. 

Dad was one of the most optimistic people I had ever come across in my life. He heard everyone, weighed all pros and cons, and went ahead with the decision to launch the business and called it Adens with a tagline that read, 'A Sweet Den for All'. That was how on 22 December 1991, history was written in the small town of Changanacherry where the people of the town witnessed a brand-new experience of exciting their taste buds with variety of ice creams! 34 years later, the business still stands tall even though dad now oversees the operations from heaven as my brother runs the show. 

Many years after Adens was launched and running as one of the biggest success stories from that part of the world, one day I asked dad how did he overcome the resistance from many people during the planning days. His answer was a simple yet powerful proverb.

Let the dogs bark, but the caravan moves on...

God bless his soul!

 

Punctuality – A Deadly Lesson!

Yesterday evening a sad news came in one of my college WhatsApp groups. It had a picture of a professor who taught us during the graduation days, quarter of a century ago and the message was about his passing. May his soul rest in peace.

A barrage of memories came rushing on how he used to take classes those days when faculties were not burdened with political correctness. They freely spoke their mind and acted as they wished. Getting reminded of maintaining decorum in the class, with a pellet hitting your head in the form of a chalk piece or at times even the eraser itself or notebooks flying through the air and out of the door since homework was not done, were all accepted norms then. They all contributed to the beautiful nostalgia that we cherish today.

Those were the days when faculty and student relation was laced with respect and love, something only next to what we experienced back home with our parents.

On the contrary, I recently heard from some of the professors in colleges now, where they had to think twice before making a remark in the class fearing what students and parents will think and react about the correctness of their remark.

That reminded me of one of our other professors, Mr D who taught us during our MBA days back in the then Christ College, Bangalore. It was the initial days of the classes and our first experience of getting exposed to a professional course that taught Business Management.

He had a unique way of delivering his lecture. The campus at Christ was lush green. On one end of the campus, there was a Birds Park where literally we could see birds visiting in groups due to the thick foliage. The garden had a gazebo with ample chairs that could accommodate a whole class. 

We were given clear instructions by Mr D, for us to be seated at the Birds Park before the beginning of the class. He would join us right on dot when the class time was meant to start. On day one, we all followed this to the T. Day two, one of our classmates was late by a minute.

As soon as the student came up, he gave an excuse on why he was late. We could see a clear change to the professor's demeanour. His face became stern and when he spoke, the voice was deep with a scary tone.

Mr D made a statement, which remained etched in our minds till date and became the Magna Carta for everything to do with punctuality in our life. 

He said, 'You can only have two reasons to arrive late to my class. Either you must be dead, or you are dying!'

This and many more timeless reminders from our dear teachers from yester years, keep us on our toes in our daily life, even decades after leaving college and working in a professional environment in the corporate world.

Salute to good old days!