Mumbai Marathon 2011

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Investing stakeholders

Wednesday was an extremely eventful day to say the least.

The day started off with me going to school, just like any other day. We were told we would have to attend some Zilla Parishad training for two whole days, all in Marathi. Of course, we were ecstatic about the training! ;)

There was this hope that I would only have to go for half the day after school, but our Principal had a change of heart and wanted me to attend for the full day. So around 10 AM I headed to a nearby school and sat down among about 150 English and Hindi medium teachers for a 7 hour long Marathi "bashan" on the new ZP format for assessing our students!

Following the training, I walked out with the hope of heading to a Western classical performance. I put my key in to open my car door, took it out, sat in the car and looked at my key. The key was slightly bent. I touched the tip of it and it snapped into two and I was just left staring at the key that was now in two pieces.

One of the teachers from my school was with me and I was supposed to drop her back home. I was like um... there's a slight problem. My car key just broke and is now in two pieces. Then I showed her the key. We decided to find a chhabi wala close by to get a duplicate key made. We started walking and about 5 minutes later learnt that if we went into the Yerwada market, we could possibly find one. After a good 15 minute walk, we found a chhabi wala who was willing to make a duplicate key.

When asked how much it would cost, with no hesitation he said Rs. 150. I, for one, had only Rs. 40 in my wallet at that time. Yes, I know, just wonderful luck! We successfully bargained him down to Rs. 40 to make the key. YAY for bargaining skills! :) With a key in hand that would hopefully work, we headed back to the car. Once back, I tried opening the car door and couldn't.

We tried all kinds of things, including shaking the car to get the door open, but it just didn't work. By this time, the other teacher's uncle had come to pick her up. They were nice enough to go back to the chhabi wala, pick him up and bring him to the car. The key by now was bent and out of shape. He fixed the key and 2 minutes later had the car door open. Amazed I started the car and headed to drop the other teacher off at home.

Once at her home, she insisted that I come in and spend a few minutes, so I went into their house. A nice, quaint house and such a warm, welcoming family! It was amazing how the whole family called me in with smiling faces and such affection. They insisted that I have dinner with them but I told them that I would have to head out as it was getting late.

After about an hour, I walked out of the house and headed to my car. As I was driving back home, I was just thinking how wonderful it was to visit their house and how welcoming and affectionate they all were. We talk about investing stakeholders all the time but how many of us take it to heart. I'm pretty sure no one would have told this teacher anything about investing stakeholders but she just did it. I think that at the end of it, I felt that we should not look at ourselves as being different from the other teachers in our school, or feel different but rather just look at the wonderful things that they offer and the things that we can learn from them. If you look hard enough, there is something we can learn from every single person we meet! :)