Rituals

“Theen hi tou pankhe hai naa saab?... Number kya dena? Aap ghar mei roz doe bachhon ko ginn kar sote hain kya?”(All together, there are just 3 fans... what for, do we need to number them?.. do you count your two kids everyday, before going to sleep?)

Asked that daftary(a person elevated/designated to do voucher-binding work at banks, in India), to the auditor, in all innocence!

The auditor conceded... he paced a tick mark at that check list about inventory management of furniture and fixtures!

I was there...
That was the problem !

I called that daftary aside, and we went out for a cup of tea ...

I told him: 'Don't gloat over a seemingly-victory... '

He retorted, “then you better explain!”

I asked him “which of those three were purchased first, and the next one after how many years ?”

“Dunno! I came a little late into this job!.. but I can look at the vouchers and give the dates, but the 'make/brand being the same, I feel it is difficult !”

I had nailed him so easily (I thought he would look at the unique id, the aadhaar number given to each piece, which is mentioned on those bills, if not the vouchers!)

“Now,” I sent a guided missile, “when we are going to dispose the earliest purchased one, how do we decide?... or even for a zero-depreciation beyond a point of time, how do we decide?”

“Yeh sab tou maine socha hi nahi thaa!” ('I never had thought of all this stuff/implications !), he conceded...
But he did ask, “then why did the auditor get quietened?”....

To which all I could console him with was... “Hey, promotions are on seniority, remember!”, and I added “what I pointed out, is not his-headache anyway... it is for a future manager”...

Before he could get out of that 'nascent' stage of a fresh dawn of mini-wisdom, I had my own hidden agenda...
I added, “So, .. the same way... do not forsake that 'ritual' that your forefathers had been doing for generations, on the phase of that moon, when your dad departed... and don't make it an English date, just because you find it easy to 'tick' mark, like we do at office calendar...
Just as those at our systems&Management dept at Head office had thought of several aspects when fans had to be numbered, and mentioned in that F&F register (furniture/fixture), our ancestors had devised these functions, which look like a stupid ritual to you right now, with great significance for our life, and also after-life!”
“Let me pay for the tea”... was all that he could afford now! Anyway, we share that 'single-tea' which was just INR 0.35 (those days!)...

While walking back to our desks, I quipped, “And remember, there was always a cost-effective short cut, in our rituals, and so don't end up paying exhorbitant fee to that priest too... He too is like our auditor, flexible for fee!.. You may end up losing the value-addition!”

audi-ably yours,

psn (21st July, 2015)