The Window Through Which We Look

A young couple moved into a new neighbourhood
The next morning while they were eating breakfast,
The young woman saw her neighbour hanging the wash outside.
'That laundry is not very clean,' she said.
'She doesn't know how to wash correctly.
Perhaps she needs better laundry soap.'

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbour would hang her wash to dry,
The young woman would make the same comments.

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see
a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband:

'Look, she has learned how to wash correctly.
I wonder who taught her this.'

The husband said, 'I got up early this morning and
Cleaned our windows.'


And so it is with life.
What we see when watching others depends on the window through which we look...

Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.

A gentleman once visited a temple under construction where he saw a sculptor making an idol of God.

Suddenly he noticed a similar idol lying nearby. Surprised, he asked the sculptor, "Do you need two statues of the same idol?"

"No," said the sculptor without looking up, "We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage."

The gentleman examined the idol and found no apparent damage... "Where is the damage?" he asked. "There is a scratch on the nose of the idol." said the sculptor, still busy with his work. "Where are you going to install the idol?"

The sculptor replied that it would be installed on a pillar twenty feet high.

"If the idol is that far, who is going to know that there is a scratch on the nose?" the gentleman asked. The sculptor stopped his work, looked up at the gentleman, smiled and said, "I know it and God knows it!"

Moral - The desire to excel should be exclusive of the fact whether someone appreciates it or not. Excellence is a drive from inside, not outside. Excel at a task today - not necessarily for someone else to notice but for your own satisfaction.

MONEY IS YOURS BUT RESOURCES BELONG TO THE SOCIETY

Germany is a highly industrialised country. It produces top brands
like Benz, BMW, Siemens etc. The nuclear reactor pump is made in a small
town in this country.
In such a country, many will think its people lead a luxurious life.
At least that was my impression before my study trip.


When I arrived at Hamburg, my colleagues who work in Hamburg arranged
a welcome party for me in a restaurant.
As we walked into the restaurant, we noticed that a lot of tables were
empty. There was a table where a young
couple was having their meal. There were only two dishes and two cans of
beer on the table. I wondered if such simple meal could be romantic, and
whether the girl will leave this stingy guy.

There were a few old ladies on another table. When a dish is served,
the waiter would distribute the food for them, and they would finish every
bit of the food on their
plates.

We did not pay much attention to them, as we were looking forward to
the dishes we ordered. As we were hungry, our local colleague ordered
more food for
us.

As the restaurant was quiet, the food came quite fast. Since there
were other activities arranged for us, we did not spend much time dining.
When we left, there was still about one third of unconsumed food on the
table.

When we were leaving the restaurant, we heard someone calling us. We
noticed the old ladies in the restaurant were talking about us to
the restaurant owner. When they spoke to us in English, we understood
that they were unhappy about us wasting so much food. We immediately felt
that they were really being too
busybody.
"We paid for our food, it is none of your business how much food we
left behind," my colleague Gui told the old ladies.


The old ladies were furious. One of them immediately took her hand phone
out
and made a call to someone. After a while, a man in uniform claimed to be
an
officer from the Social Security organization arrived. Upon knowing what
the dispute was, he issued us a 50 Mark fine.
We all kept quiet. The local colleague took out a 50 Mark note
and repeatedly apologized to the
officer.


The officer told us in a stern voice, "ORDER WHAT YOU CAN CONSUME, MONEY
IS YOURS BUT RESOURCES BELONG TO THE SOCIETY. THERE ARE MANY OTHERS IN THE
WORLD WHO ARE FACING SHORTAGE OF RESOURCES. YOU HAVE NO REASON TO
WASTE RESOURCES.´”


Our face turned red. We all agreed with him in our hearts. The mindset of
people of this rich country put all of us to shame. WE REALLY NEED TO
REFLECT ON THIS. We are from country which is not very rich in resources.
To save face, we order large quantity and also waste food when we give
others a treat. THIS LESSON TAUGHT US A LESSON TO THINK SERIOUSLY ABOUT
CHANGING OUR BAD HABITS.


My colleague Photostatted the fine ticket and gave a copy to each of us as
a souvenir. All of us kept it and pasted on our wall to remind us that we
shall never be wasteful.

A story from RATAN TATA, CEO - TATA GROUPS OF COMPANIES