Deadlines

It was indeed unfair on the part of my car to breakdown suddenly on the highway. I was going to my native village to invite my relatives for a family function that was going to be held soon. The previous night itself I had wiped it clean and got it ready for the journey. It took me an hour or so to do it.  `This wretched car does not seem to have any gratitude!` I said to myself. I had a hundred tasks to finish before sunset. `Being stuck there in the most unwelcome situation how will I be able to finish off all of them!`

It was still 8 o'clock in the morning.  Lorries and fast cars were buzzing past me. Autos, though their horse power was not half as much as that of the fast cars, were making vain efforts to overtake them. Now and then some over crowded public transport buses were lumbering along. Bikers and cyclists were also on the move. Everyone seemed to be going somewhere. No village or habitation seemed to be nearby. The highway, my car and I were immobile. How pity being in such situation was!

I had to somehow set my car moving. I made a phone call to my mechanic whose workshop was some sixty kilometres away from the place. It might take him at least two hours to find me on the road side. 

At around nine o'clock a middle aged papaya seller arrived there by his bicycle. He spread an empty rice bag under a tree nearby and put ripe papayas on it. He then took out a fruit and started peeling it with a sharp knife at a slow pace. I doubted if he would have a chance to sell at least one fruit in such a place. He cut the fruit in long slices and put them in a carry bag and hung it on the handlebar of the bicycle.  Then he took up one more fruit to repeat with it also what he had done with the previous one. I found to my surprise that before he finished with the second one, a cyclist came from somewhere and bought the first bag of papaya slices.  

The man continued with his work at a regular pace and there were never two bags hung on the handlebar at any time! A biker or a cyclist always came and found only a bag waiting for him. I asked him how it was possible. He showed his hands towards the sky as if saying it was God's magic. Being aware of law of probability I reasoned with myself that this fruit seller who had been having his makeshift shop there for a long time must have known the frequency of highway users at that place and regulated his speed of peeling to match the demand. This was a simple rule. If there had been much traffic, he would have kept more papaya slices ready. 

Fortunately the mechanic arrived and took away the car to the city. I borrowed his bike and resumed my journey towards my destination. Though I was already three hours behind my schedule, I could finish all my tasks before evening as had been planned. How was it possible!? I don`t show my hands towards the sky as was done by the fruit seller. I know, you know and everyone knows that it is volume of work and urgency that decide the speed of an individual. 

I realized that day the reason behind setting deadlines for the employees in corporate companies. It was a fantastico revelation for me.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can  apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

© Dantuluri Kishore Varma