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.

Everyone has one

He is a doctor. I could not be one and therefore he belongs to a superior species. Well let me clarify myself, he could have belonged to that superior species but for the fact that somehow during the last fifteen years I forgot or grew over the principle (I don’t know which one is true) that one has to become a doctor to become successful. Nevertheless he is a doctor and that superior human being in the society. He scored over 90% in tenth and ditto in twelfth. Stood among top five in the post grad entrance exam after an unimaginably put in hard work of 2 – 3 years, he did not have money to eat take shelter n those grueling years. He played sweet with all his friends and acquaintances, innovated methods that would put Dale Carnegie to shy and passed those 2 – 3 years during PG preparation with all the help that he could muster. When he got 5th rank in all India entrance and finally secured an MD Opthalm seat in a leading institute he quit the same since the department was ophthalmology and he wanted to practice in cardio. He had the resilience to prepare for the exam once again – stood this time at 150 odd position, secured a seat in PG general medicine which can later metamorphose itself into a cardio and went to Bihar the dreaded state for pursuing his PG. This month he is completing his studies. This chap is my childhood friend, who used to be mere second-class student till he came across me in the seventh standard and got that inspiration to achieve. Story is not about his academic pursuit!

Let us call him Amit for the ease.

Amit was in eleventh standard. He had stood first in the highschool and was now gearing up for medical entrance exams. His father being paralytic and having not much of facilities for studies at his house he used to come to our house every day for his studies. The only moment he went home was for food. I have strong reasons to believe that he was gay partners with my bro.

We had rented a portion of the house to a family which had 3 daughters - the eldest in 1st year of graduation, the second in 10th and the third in 8th standard. Their bathroom was just next to the study room of my bro and Amit and the only separation was a door which was permanently locked from the other side, cool! One night, there was no one in the house but for my mom, who used to sleep in the next room. My mom heard sound of someone colliding against the table and she came asking what happened. Amit was apparently searching from a pen fallen somewhere, just that there was no light in the room. Next night again sound of collision was to be heard by my mom who was anxiously waiting this time. Amit was sighted peeping thro the bathroom door while the light was on on the other side – the girls might have been releasing their pressures before going for sleep! Amit was fired. Amit somehow continued to come to our house for studies after a few days, once my brother cam back from his holidays. This time one board was fixed to the door on the other side so that the bathroom could not be peeped into. Everyone continued to be friends. Strange are the manners of the world, it does not punish you so harshly after all, may be everyone connives towards satisfying that need of yours (to borrow from Alchemist, Paul Cohello).

Amit liked to impress my dad. Innovative that he is Amit always had some tantrums to get into good books and the easiest was to score image against low scoring brother of mine. I noticed this tendency and told Amit to stop coming to our house and he promptly obliged. He continued a great friend and continued to visit our house. There were reports of his molesting attempts to one of the girls in our house, again some harsh feelings, again forgotten and forgiven etc.

After sometime those 3 daughters family moved into a new house of their own. Their third daughter scored highest in the high school this time. Amit went to their house and informed that my dad, who owns this popular tutorial, wanted to felicitate their daughter and had sent for her. He escorted the girl and hesitantly tried to take her to eat ice cream in a hotel opposite to our tutorial. My dad is a seasoned man with those extra long antennas. Destiny wanted him to be bemused watching our dearest Amit’s struggle from the building opposite. My dad rushed down and escorted them to the restaurant.
Today Amit is happily married to a beautiful lady who also happens to be a doctor, has a kid. Will be starting his practice and is bound to go a long way. Perseverance, patience, hard work and not limiting yourself to conventionally accepted truths of life do end up paying huge dividends in life.