Now,  I know that your Doctor/Mom/ and the general ‘elite’ of the society are usually against the notion that there acutally can be something useful that could be derived from a fast food joint. But trust me on this, there is something that I did find something like that.  Something that I probably would not ever find even after years of searching.  No its not all the yummy looking/smelling but not good for health food but its the bunch of people that work as a team that is holding the joint together.  Fast food joints are the best places on this planet to learn about an important trait that young starters need. – Team Work.

I’m completely convinced that Fast food joints are the best places for the young folk that most throng these joints to take a few lessons on Team Work. This is not a random observation. This is a hypothesis that I proved to be true after years of collecting data of statistical significance . No, seriously jokes apart I’ve been visiting this fast food joint since a loong time and I’ve visited at random times, a good combination of early mornings, late mornings, evenings and on both on weekdays and weekends. I can say that even at peak times never was  my order  held for more than 15 minutes, averaging at around 7 minutes in general. Believe me when I say peak time I’m speaking about at least around 10 orders being placed per minute and sometimes each order in bulk, Ex: 10 plates idli, 5 plates Dosa etc., Another observation made was that its always the same 4 people who takes the oders at the counter and then another couple of people inside the kitchen actually executing the order. What is another constant is there is continual chaos at these food joints irrespective of the time of the day. With all these unfavourable parameters one would would think how these folks have been managing to sustain its customers for all these years. The answer is simple ! They work as a team. They have all the qualities that an efficient team should have. I’ve read a few online resources that talk about the traits of a great team and when I tried to align these traits along with the few observations that I made at these fast food joint folks I actually got a good overlap of these traits.

These are some of the often found traits of members of a ‘great’ team:

1. Sharing of responsibilities & rotating roles as needed.

2. Showing of support, respect and trust.

3. Great  understanding, immaculate communication and collaboration

4. Having a unified goal oriented approach in their actions/work.

Another very inspiring story is that of the mumbai ‘Dabbawallahs’ whose business model was studied by big business schools around the world. You can find more information on them here:

http://www.mydabbawala.com/

India –  the second largest nation in terms of population,

– the seventh largest nation in terms of area,

– one of the fastest growing GDPs in the world,

– more than 500o years of rich cultural history,

– one of the world’s highest producers of engineers & doctors,

– a nuclear superpower and a soon to be economic super power,

– largest democracy in the world,

and the list goes on…

All these are indeed things to be proud of, things that can instill an instant dose of patriotism in anyone. But all of this, everything stated above  just vanishes into thin air when you see that things really don’t work the way its supposed to at the grass root level. And I put the entire blame on the Indian Bureaucracy. This stinking organization has been pulling India back 2 steps for every 1 step that it puts forward. Rajiv Gandhi once openly stated that for every rupee that the Government puts aside to spend on its people, only 15 paise or 15% of it actually comes through. This is an observation that was made in the year 1988. 20 years since a lot of things have changed , most of it superficially. You try to dig a bit deep and you see the dirty side of the country.

Now a bit more context to my random ranting. I’ve recently had to deal with a government organization for my cousin’s personal work. The job at hand was to obtain a police clearance certificate for this cousin living in another country to extend his visa. Initially, I was glad to get to know that there was an online application to be submitted. Progress ! right ??? Wrong what I had to do really is after I’ve submitted that application online, I still had to go to the office to submit the printed version of the online application form. Duhh!! Anyway, I did that assuming that it was just an 7 day ordeal as the website stated that the certificate could be collected on the 7th day after submitting the application. After the police verification was done it is the 3rd week now and I have received it yet and every time I call them to check  the status, the information I get is that the report has not even reached them. When I ask them what the reason is, I get the most insensitive answer. I mean how difficult is it for a citizen of this country, who has not had even a single complaint against him ever, has all the right documentation to get a clearance letter from the local police stating his good conduct?? Well, it is clear that it is very very difficult. My friends and parents say that if I bribe them my work would mover faster, why should I give any extra money to anybody?

I understand many people love this country and would have a bucket full of great advices for me to join the ‘system’ and be upright and shine as an example. Why should I ? I mean I don’t like to be part of the system, its a personal choice. Whats wrong with that? If everyone who has my opinion does the same thing then you will have a billion people who would be looking for jobs in this organization. I wonder what will change us, it cannot be organizational , it has to be spiritual. God save us.