His name is Shibu!

We used to call him speedy Gonzalves. There was this Gonzalves who went to his friend Paulo’s place. Paulo slept all the night keeping his hand in the precious place of his wife to protect it from Gonzalves. There were mosquitoes in Ponda since it was raining Paulo must have killed a few of them in his sleep, but for that part Paulo carefully retained his hand where it was only that in the morning it was found on Gonzalves’ ass.

Shibu had principles.

• Unlike Gonzalves Shibu would never touch relatives of any of his friends. Well I can vouch for that. He would ask when there is so much in abundance everywhere why to touch relatives of friends, quite reasonable.
  
• He would always share his possessions with his friends. He would ask see anyhow all these will go to someone else also. If you share with your own friends at least you are sure with whom they are sleeping and you know the extent of risk given all these AIDS kind of stuff all around. He would laugh at people who are possessive of their achievements.
  
• He would say if there is anyone available better grab. If you don’t take it in the name of principles and all that crap they will go to someone else and only loser will be you.
  
• For him it was divine.

He was initiated by a neighbor like most of us. He said there is no single married lady who has turned him down. He claimed a score of 100. I know at least 8 of them in the span of 18 months I knew him. These 8 were in that town we lived in while there were twice that number across various places like Hyderabad (an MBA student), Chennai (2 sisters both small time movie actresses and their niece), Coimbatore (2 – 3 MBA students – have lost the count), 3 in Hosur (one my next door neighbor whom I had not seen myself, 2 others). He made me feel pathetic all the time that I cant score as many.

He is five-five weighs hardly 65 kg’s, fair complexion and abundant energy. If you have right tongue you have everything, there is no need of looks, money or stature. Not that he was great at his linguistic proficiency – he could impress anyone with his slightly accented language nevertheless he had right sentences on all occasions.

Industry norm for production of injections is around 90%. That means in washing and filling 100,000 small ampoules of 1ml you are permitted to lose all in all 10,000 ampoules. That may mean very large a number but given the process involved such as, washing these delicate thin ampoules in a jet stream of water, drying them under jot air stream, passing them through a very hot tunnel at 500 degrees for sterilizing, filling in a completely sterilized atmosphere, inspecting each ampoule holding against light, labeling and packing high speed packing machines with about 300 people involved in manufacturing these 100,000 ampoules it is extremely difficult. This is all the more difficult when 80% these 300 people are educated less than 10th standard from some villages. World’s largest multinationals have defined the yield to be 90%. There are more hurdles!Extremely stringent quality standards. Sterile atmospheres which mean not even 10 bacteria per square meter of air in this manufacturing area! Consistently giving an output of 1 million ampoules daily against all the odds.

Before our friend came the output was hovering at 90% and business was stable limping once in a while, only to be discovered by Shibu that 90% was obtained by additional 10 liter water added to every hundred liter. Now our savior had not solved the problem. He had created one. He had informed not only that the yield was less but more importantly the product was spurious! The boss maintained Shibu was incorrect. It took more than 12 months to prove what was right. In the midst Organization had to survive. 800 employees needed to be paid every month and organization was not sitting on huge reserves. You cannot sack any since salaries at individual levels are low and the job is labor intensive. The organization was already barely profitable and with huge investments incurred for expansions most of the earnings were going towards paying off debts towards that investment. Hidden secret of spurious product would come out one day, customer would kick your rear side. All that you needed here was nothing short of a miracle.

We needed to play politics. We played it with text book precision. The spurious drug manufacturer was outstrengthed. Management trust was gained. Our difficulties began with these heroic activities. My job was over here. It was time to deliver in the shopfloor. Even I could not believe that Shibu could do it. Our miracle man delivered 98% - 99% output. Multinationals were shocked. Output rose. Cost per ampoule came down. Product quality increased. When I asked about new achievements Shibu said no time man, all the time goes in the office. He worked 24 hours a day without taking leaves, worked on all the weekends.

He could manage to score only 3 – 4 more in 6 months. His personal score had diminished. 800 people could continue to come to job - organization continued to run. Organization continues to run even today. Shibu continues to run the organization. We need to prioritize everything and practice living our priorities.