Lal Quila to Jammu is an overnight journey. The buses are deluxe or semi-deluxe but roads are not very good and therefore sleep is not sound. The horn blaring.. the putter of rains on bus top.. constant head lights of passing vehicles give you very less opportunity to concentrate to sleep..My Harward days while I was studying my journalism came in my mind. Nothing can beat Mera Bharat Mahan but experience of the west helps you often in your job. Valley has been a field of trials and tribulations for me…Coming from Budgam going to Harward has been a journey of a life time. Pure humble backgrounds..rendering Namaaz five times a day and helping every human being and living a contended life. Nothing can beat my stream gurgling away …girls giggling. …birds singing..such is the beauty of my native place. Terrorism has bought in bloodbath, gloom and sorrow and to expose this very futility of terrorism I dreamt of journalism…
My aunt was saved by a Hindu officer…a Jat young officer while the militants the so-called Jehadis first fired indiscriminately on the bus she was travelling near Shopian…and then wanted to burn it…The media had no news about this….it said Army operations are taking more lives than saving them….she probably was saved because she was destined not because the young army man was brave enough to risk his life said my Khalla Jaan..what a pity…if we can’t credit someone we shouldn’t discredit also…
The bus was catching speed as it had hit the NH1A…I got remembered of a story I had read not long back– The Alfred Dunhill Story: A church in London had rules that it would not employ anyone, without formal high school education.
The old pastor was benign and not stickler of rules.
He allowed Alfred Dunhill (who lacked formal education) as the caretaker to clean the pew, sweep the floor and keep the podium spick and span. Dunhill had put off taking his high school examination till it became too late. Once the old pastor retired, he was replaced by a younger person who followed the rule book. As he came to know about the caretaker’s education, he issued a notice to him that either he should get a high school certificate in six months or he should resign. Dunhill knew that you could not teach an old dog new tricks and that he had no option but to resign.
He started out his afternoon stroll in deep thought and got into Bond Street. Suddenly, he felt an urge to smoke. He could not find a single tobacco shop on the entire street. He walked further down into a side street where he could purchase his cigarette. He came back on the busy Bond Street. He realised that a small cigarette shop in the street would be a sound business proposition. He resigned at the church and started a small shop on the Bond Street which succeeded way beyond his expectations. He noticed that many of his customers were coming from the other side of the street.
He started another shop on that side of Bond Street. Friends and relatives advised to put down others by campaigning against others. They even said tell them your cigarettes increases vitality. He didn’t want to lie and create sensation to sell. He continued to be true and honest basing his campaign on facts and figures. Quality was his main stay and not quantity. The two shops multiplied to four and then sixteen.
In three years, Alfred Dunhill & Co. was a leading tobacconist of England. He started machine-rolling cigarettes and introduced his own brand of Dunhill cigarettes. In five years, he was a millionaire many times over.
To ensure a consistent supply of tobacco, he entered into an annual purchase agreement with a couple of American tobacco farmers and went to America to meet them. It was a big boost for the American tobacco farmers and the contract signing ceremony was converted into a media circus, with a Senator and Governor participating.
When the contracts were actually signed, Dunhill affixed his thumb impression because he had not learnt to sign his name. The Governor was impressed and said, “Well Sir! This is awesome. Even without a formal education you have achieved so much. Just imagine what you would have done if you had a formal education!”
Dunhill’s characteristic often repeated reply was, “If I knew how to read and write, I would still be sweeping the church!”
Moral of the Story: “Our degrees or our knowledge only gets us going but it is only our intelligence, simplicity, fairness and honesty that gets us there.”
I knew then and there that if I had to sell I would have to be smart, intelligent and zealous and not bully, one-sided, rigid and unfair.
MUSAFIR
