"...50?? Your dad always took 20 for these jobs! You are too expensive...."

 "...50?? Your dad always took 20 for these jobs! You are too expensive...."

...said the other customer, while I was waiting for my turn.

The left side strip of my right foot sandal had come off. So after a few days of procrastination I finally landed up at a cobbler near my home. The cobbler was a young chap, looked like a guy in his late 30s. Since I had seen the cobbler's little corner often while I passed by it, I had always seen an older man (perhaps in his 50s) working there.

While I was waiting for my turn, I was observing him mending the footwear of another customer who was waiting when I reached. The cobbler was about to finish the job and was pushing the awl needle through the footwear for the last time before cutting the stitching thread. When the customer enquired about the cost of mending, the cobbler quoted fifty bucks. That was when the customer said what I quoted above.

On hearing this, the cobbler gave a wide smile and said "Sir, my father always held his craft in low regards and hence charged very less for decades. Had he asked for a fair price, our family could have faced lesser hardships. Maybe I wouldn't be here today (and could have been better off) if he charged his customers a fair price. I do not want my son to be sitting here doing this job after another 15 years Sir..." The customer just chuckled in response, as he dug into his wallet to fetch 50 bucks.

We often spend thousands without a second thought when we shop for clothes and footwear, but when it comes to spending a fraction of that cost on mending something that is broken, we often start thinking about the price to be paid.

Coming to pay parity, this probably applies to whats happening in some job markets. Many people are now asking for fair compensation and employers feel the price quoted is too high. Barring a few exceptions (where the asking pay is indeed very high due to demand/supply mismatch of quality talent), perhaps the asking pay isn't expensive when compared to what it brings to the table. Perhaps the talent of the past was inexpensive and underpaid and fair pay is getting discovered as market dynamics change. 

Next time you go to that cobbler, tailor, vegetable vendor, plumber, carpenter, evaluate the asking price they quote against the quality of service offered & utility served. Add to it the opportunity costs you would incur if you were to not use their service/offerings.

Also, consider mending that footwear/dress/furniture/gadget before you take the easy way out of replacing it. A good repair job will not only save you a lot of money in the longer run, it will also support small businesses to thrive alongside the larger ones.

The To-Do List Massacre

...and just like that, within minutes, I was able to 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝟰𝟬% of the items on my long To-Do List...

The "𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗲𝗻𝗱" list is something I started over a decade back. It started with 3-4 items (and hence the name was 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗼-𝗗𝗼). Over the years, the number of items started going up, threatening to break into three-digit figures. Some of the "weekend to-do" items added 6-7 years back still linger around on the list.

So this weekend, I put in a focused effort to complete as many as I could - a lot of them were low hanging fruits. But even after all the effort, all I could knock off was just 10% of the items on the long list. 

Yesterday, late evening, I opened the list again. I examined each and every item and started classifying them into 2 buckets. 

𝟭) 𝗘𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹/𝗖𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹/𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼

𝟮) 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼/𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁

   𝟮𝗮) 𝗔𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝟲 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀

   𝟮𝗯) 𝗢𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝟲 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀

The next step was fun. I started hitting backspace one line after another, deleting all the 𝟮𝗯) items, while all the 𝟮𝗮) items witnessed the "𝘛𝘰-𝘋𝘰 𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘦" in horror, probably fretting at the possibility of getting eliminated too. All the 𝟭)s probably felt relieved, to get some much earned breathing space and importance on the pricey "To-Do" real estate.

By the close of the weekend, while I had closed 10% of the tasks listed, I had simply deleted 30% that fell under 𝟮𝗮). That resulted in an overall reduction of nearly 40% in the list. The next target is to keep chipping away at the remaining 60% - via closure or elimination.

The items that got deleted were unlikely to get done if they werent critical and open for a long time. The experience was quite liberating. They say one should keep one's house/desk/surroundings uncluttered to aid clarity and productivity and help reduce stress levels. The same principle probably applies to our "To-Do" lists. Long ones can be overwhelming and one might just keep procrastinating clearing the items on it due to the sheer number and variety of items listed therein. 

When was the last time you cleaned up your To-Do list (be it around personal tasks or office/work related tasks)? A Monday is probably a good day to give it ( #SafaiAbhiyaan ) a shot. Trust me, it is indeed liberating. 

"...yeh school bhi kya galat jagah pe banaya hai yaar..."

"...yeh school bhi kya galat jagah pe banaya hai yaar..."

...I cribbed to the auto driver. ["...this school has been built at such a wrong place..."]

I stay near a railway line. Often we need to go to the other side of the line for which we need to drive over a very narrow fly over. It leads into a narrow street which is perennially jammed, especially at certain hours. Half way up the street there is a school (which, incidentally, my little one goes to). So when a set of classes are about to start or have just been completed, there is utter chaos with parents, caregivers and drivers lining up (with their vehicles/autos parked near the gate) to pick/drop their kids. 

On that particular day, I was returning from the other side and had to reach home immediately to dail in to an important office call. However, my trip coincided with the end of one of the school batches and the street was full of little blobs sporting green and blue uniforms. Scampering around just like black ants rushing around a crystal of sugar. Cars with parking lights flashing were scattered throughout the street. I knew I would be late for the call and hence I muttered what I quoted above. While I wasn't anticipating a response from the auto driver, he had a view on the matter. "Sir, the school isn't built in a wrong place. It is a very old school and when they built it there was hardly any traffic here. Slowly the residential buildings grew taller and more and more people started buying vehicles which started choking up the street. The school is at the right place" he said, looking back at me from his driver's seat, flashing an innocent yet wise wide grin that revealed two missing incisors in his upper jaw.

Quite often, it is us who are in the wrong place and/or at the wrong time, but unknowingly end up cursing/blaming the surrounding place/people for our woes. Ironically, sitting in that auto at that moment, I was adding to the traffic, probably delaying the school kids from reaching their school/home.

"...he is unbeatable today..."

"...he is unbeatable today..."

...typed one of the cousins. 

The first lockdown was hard for everyone. People took to all kinds of online engagement like playing housie/bingo & poker in the evenings.

It was on one such evening where I was playing online with cousins. The Poker Gods seemed to favor me that evening. I kept getting good cards & even on riskier calls/bets, the lady luck seemed to have my back. After about an hour, I was up 3x. "Looks like I should just play every hand. Given my luck today, even bad cards may end up winners" I thought, as the goal of moving from 3x to 4x was dancing in my mind. 

Eventually, I started playing loose. Started making a lot of hero calls, riskier bets. I knew it was my day, so if I continue taking risks I will end up higher. One of the cousins playing with us is a very good player. He saw my pattern of play & started trapping me by feigning poor hands. In no time, my stack went from 3x to 2x. The target of 4x was mocking at me. I had to take a few more risks to move to 4x. Eventually, in the next 30 min I ended up going below my buy-in due to the risky plays. 2x became 0.5x. I was now at a loss with half a buy-in lost. The cousin was now up significantly & ended the evening with the highest stack while I ended up with a loss. 

The cousin said something to me later. He said "Remember one thing. Take risks when your stack is small, but once you are ahead, cut down on the risks. Preserve your stack & work towards increasing it with minimal risks, otherwise you will always risk throwing away what you have built."

This advice hit deep & stayed with me. I could connect it to so many aspects of life. Be it habits, passion, wealth creation, recreational activities, sports or any other aspect of life. Moving from level 1 to level 3 is great. But when we get too greedy & try to move from 3 to 4, 5, 6 & beyond by taking too many unconventional risks, we risk losing what we have achieved till that point. A 3 can easily go back to 2, 1 or even 0. Moving from 2 to 4 is seen as 100% profit, whereas moving from 4 to 2 is seen as only 50% loss, whereas the fact is that we lost 100% of what we had gained from the starting point. 

The reason I penned this down is that about a month back I heard about the passing of a person in my locality. He drove a high end car, had a bigh house. Seemed financially well set, but often worked for 14-15 hours a day. Could be very passionate about his work or perhaps wanted to accumulate more for his retirement/family. However, his passion/goals perhapsgot the better of his wellbeing. The untimely event brought it all down to zero.

So often we run behind things, taking unnecessary risks, while risking our physical, mental & financial health. Take a pause & think if the risk is needed. And if it is, at what cost? What are we ready to put at stake to take the stack to the next level? Should we take calculated risks on AA or reckless risks on 72 (considered as the weakest hand in poker)?

"...but why is half glass costing Rs.5 and a full Rs. 7 ? Shouldn't the full be Rs.10...?"

"...but why is half glass costing Rs.5 and a full Rs. 7 ? Shouldn't the full be Rs.10...?"

I asked mom, while eagerly waiting for my treat to arrive. It was the late 1980s or early 90s.

Mom used to visit the vegetable market nearly 3 to 4 times a week. She was always open to taking me along. The incentive for me - once she was done buying veggies, we'd walk into a big sugarcane juice center for a glass of iced juice. It was always fascinating to watch the sugarcane get crushed between those huge drums and, just when you thought there was no juice possibly left, the guy would fold the cane sticks and pass it again to squeeze some more juice out - all this while you could hear the sound made by the ghungroo tied to the gears/wheels of the machine. Masala dabbis were kept on each table. One could make the juice tastier by sprinkling some masala over it. The price for half a glass was Rs.5 & the full was Rs.7.

For the first time when I saw the rate board I got confused. The teachers at school had clearly explained what half & double meant. Double of 5 is 10, half of 7 is 3.5! So I asked mom about it. "If you look carefully, the half glass is not really half full. It is almost like 3/4th. Hence the rate of half glass is a little more than half of the rate of a full glass" she said, giving me an "aha!" moment.

Cut to a few years later, I started taking a liking to Manchow soup. For every dining outing, I'd order it. The unsaid rule is that you always share soups. "One by two please" is what you tell the waiter. Not sure if you have ever noticed, but the total quantity of a one-by-two is always greater than 1 bowl. The chef doesn't divide the soup after pouring it all in one bowl. He will just pour it separately in two bowls - filling about half (which is always more than half) of each. Once I figured this, I decided to always order a one-by-two even if I was ordering it for one person, coz two halves were more than one full. Most restaurants don't  serve half, so you can only order a full bowl. Ordering a one-by-two then is always more beneficial from the economic point of view.

This probably also applies to many facets of life. Often we chase 100% or full potential of something and look down upon partial achievements. While there is nothing wrong with chasing a full 100%, a perceived (or labelled) half is often more than half. We all often use the term half (eg: that is just half the job done, this one is only half as good) so often to refer to partial things/work/achievements when the fact could be that it is actually significantly more than half. Maybe 60-70% or even 90%. When we combine such perceived halves, we will often land up with more like a "one and a half" and not one.

A few years later, when I visited the same juice shop, the prices had been revised. The rate board had a couple of more line items.

Half:  Rs. 7

Half without Ice: Rs. 8

Full: Rs. 10

Full without Ice: Rs. 11

" ...you are probably getting bored for the last couple of hours..."

" ...you are probably getting bored for the last couple of hours..." 

...commented a friend (who had just started to learn the game) recently when we met for a game of poker. It was one of those days where the card Gods were testing my patience. He had seen me make a lot of boring folds.

"Either I have to get used to getting bored or I need to be filthy rich..." I told him. Before confusing him further, I added "If I were to start playing fancy, making exciting calls at the table here, I would probably get a lot of thrills in bouts due to some big wins and big losses (variance as it is called in poker), but when we leave the table in a few hours, my pockets would probably be lighter. So the question is, at the end of this session, do I want to leave the table disappointed that I did not put in my best effort? Or at peace knowing that I played to the best of my skill/knowledge/ability irrespective of the outcome?" 

Following a set process can still lead to losses/set backs, be it games, trading, investing or life in general, but we gotta make the right decisions as per the process, which often is a boring experience. The need for excitement is probably a trap that we all fall for far too often. No doubt that at times we should look for exciting opportunities/excitement in life, but a large part of life that needs to be done right is boring. Be it that morning routine, the daily chores we may consider mundane or that boring investment ride through the violent market moves while we sit and do nothing. Boring activities often bring us stability, peace of mind, health and wealth if we master the art of getting bored.

At the cost of repetition, this again reminds me of the line from the show called "The Crown" where Queen Mary tells Queen Elizabeth “To do nothing is the hardest job of all. And it will take every ounce of energy that you have."

Wish you a boring...err an exciting weekend ahead!

"...throw the ball..."

"...throw the ball..."

"...ball feko..."

"...ball taaka..."

"...ball aapo..."

...cried the little boy, all of the above (in English, Hindi, Marathi & Gujarati respectively) meaning the same thing - Throw the ball back!

It was somewhere in the mid 90s and I was about 12-13. My elder sisters, who were always entrepreneurial had set up a 2-day dress materials exhibition near our home. My cousin & I were just loitering around the gate of the premises when we saw a red rubber cricket ball go past us towards our right side. Almost instantly, we heard the cry from our left. The little guy (looked like around 5 years old) was peeping from outside the gate and continuously repeating the same lines without stopping even for a second.

There was something odd about this kid. He looked different. He talked differently. My mind fetched a word for the kid's condition and the word started with R. A term, which as kids we used loosely to describe the condition (unfortunately no one corrected us for a long time as it is considered a derogatory word) till I learned about the medical term for it. The little boy was suffering from Down's Syndrome. 

In no time, his dad showed up at the gate too, just as one of the elders around picked the ball and went to the gate to hand it over to them. "How come the little champ speaks four languages at such a small age?" enquired the uncle, as he handed the ball over. "My family speaks Marathi at home, my wife is Gujarati. We have a Catholic neighbor and our house help speaks Hindi. Everyone talks to him in their preferred language and slowly he started picking up all the languages. So now he can converse a bit in all the four languages,'' said the dad, with a wide smile. 

I have seen many children affected by Down's Syndrome since then, but I always remember this little dude every time I see someone with the condition. I remember how, in spite of the challenges he faced, he had the ability to do something that many people cannot do without a formal education - the ability to speak in four languages at that young an age.

The picture attached to this post is from a movie that I recently saw. The movie is called "The Peanut Butter Falcon" (2019). It is a heart warming tale about a man (called Zak) with Down Syndrome, who runs away from a residential nursing home to pursue his dream of becoming a wrestler. The special thing about the movie is that Zak is played by Zack Gottsagen, who has Down's Syndrome in real life. The film is authentic to things in his life experience, something we don't see in the media often enough. There is clearly a lot more that needs to be done to get individuals with Down's Syndrome accepted in all walks of work and life. Hopefully, the ever growing awareness around #DiversityAndInclusion these days will pave new paths for these special folks as well.

Hats off to the parents, families & caregivers of individuals with Down's Syndrome. It takes angels around to ensure we don't let these little angels down.

Btw, March 21 each year is observed as World Down Syndrome Day.