It was an amazing dialogue and it came from someone we normally do not expect capable of such thoughts. Oh, I must first narrate what happened.
I was at a dry cleaner's shop. As I pulled out the jacket to give it to him, both of us noticed a small tear at the shoulder joint. 'You must get it it mended before giving it to me', said the cleaner. Alright, I went looking for a tailor in my car. Here was the past middle age tailor with his customary paan (beetel nuts) in his mouth and at that time with nothing to keep him occupied. As I showed the jacket, he looked at me quizzically first, then at my car. With a sumptuous 'no offence meant' smile he then asked me
" dho rupaiah ka silai ke liye, pachas ka petrol? Apne hi haath se siladethe?" (for a stitch for two rupees, why have you burnt petrol for fifty rupees? You could have stitched it at home).
I told him that I was at the Dry Cleaner and of course I had no thread and needle. So would he mind?
"Arre, na na saab. Humara tho pesha hein. Yehi dho rupiah se hamara ghar chalta hein" ( No, no sir. do not mind what I said. This is my profession and my home runs on this two rupees only) So saying, he stitched in a jiffy and my Cleaner was happy. But the dialogue has kept going in my mind for over three or four days.
A simpler wisdom on economy and self help could not have been given by the most prestigious B-School for a thousand dollars. Most of the time we tend to think that small is ignorable and will eventually pay through our nose to mend it with big.
Not just in terms of money but in life too, many of us take no notice of things very small - relationships, colleagues, work, family, children and every other thing around which our lives reolve - we are 'blissfully' unaware that it is the small and most of the time intangible things that actually make us happy. And like I did, we do spend big money thinking that money makes up for every thing.
'Stitch in time' is perhaps a proverb not for mending clothes but is apt to be followed in life too. The small matters!!
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