This vacation I went to explore a village in Bihar. Without using fancy words to give a vivid description of its beauty I would rather like to come to the point.
A concept beyond my wildest imagination is what made me pick up my phone and got me started. Its about a new kind of trade that might sound absurd to the "Shehari Baboos". When you comb your hair, a few strands break. What would you do with it? That's a silly question. Isn't it? You would throw it away. It's not the same here. Instead they wrap it to form balls and keep it safe. When a substantial amount is collected then it is ready for trade. They wait for a collector which would come at the end of every month. In exchange of the hair he would offer them some plastic baskets or sieves or comb.
The hair strands are made into wigs and sold in the makrket at quiet a good cost.
I've never seen a barter system such as this in action so I wanted to share this experience with everyone. And also there is story centered around this idea. Now if you have read my previous blogs you might find clarity behind my fondness towards small once upon a time stories. So here we go again...
Once upon a time, one man was traveling in a train. Since I don't recall his name, let's call him Mr. Smarty pants. In front of his seat another man was sitting. A vendor selling coconuts was passing by and the men could not resist themselves from having it. So they bought one coconut each for 5 bucks. After savouring the coconut Mr. Smarty pants very smartly, as his name suggests, threw the remaining husks out of the window and on the railway track laying waste to the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan. The other man instead of throwing it away used the remaining husks to prepare a beautiful artifact. On the next station they both took off the train. The man went to a gift shop on the platform and sold it for 10 bucks and then bought 2 delicious coconuts while Mr. Smarty Pants stood there gazing at the man and thinking about why I being the narrator of the story gave him this name.
The end
I must admit that I have improvised the story a little bit. I first heard this from my father and he first heard it from his father, my lovely grandfather. The moral of the story is that you can choose to either use or refuse a resource. A resource can be as simple as broken strands of hair. Never leave a chance to put " jugaad" at work. It will always make you very happy and in some cases you can make a job out of it, same as the hair collector did.
A concept beyond my wildest imagination is what made me pick up my phone and got me started. Its about a new kind of trade that might sound absurd to the "Shehari Baboos". When you comb your hair, a few strands break. What would you do with it? That's a silly question. Isn't it? You would throw it away. It's not the same here. Instead they wrap it to form balls and keep it safe. When a substantial amount is collected then it is ready for trade. They wait for a collector which would come at the end of every month. In exchange of the hair he would offer them some plastic baskets or sieves or comb.
The hair strands are made into wigs and sold in the makrket at quiet a good cost.
I've never seen a barter system such as this in action so I wanted to share this experience with everyone. And also there is story centered around this idea. Now if you have read my previous blogs you might find clarity behind my fondness towards small once upon a time stories. So here we go again...
Once upon a time, one man was traveling in a train. Since I don't recall his name, let's call him Mr. Smarty pants. In front of his seat another man was sitting. A vendor selling coconuts was passing by and the men could not resist themselves from having it. So they bought one coconut each for 5 bucks. After savouring the coconut Mr. Smarty pants very smartly, as his name suggests, threw the remaining husks out of the window and on the railway track laying waste to the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan. The other man instead of throwing it away used the remaining husks to prepare a beautiful artifact. On the next station they both took off the train. The man went to a gift shop on the platform and sold it for 10 bucks and then bought 2 delicious coconuts while Mr. Smarty Pants stood there gazing at the man and thinking about why I being the narrator of the story gave him this name.
The end
I must admit that I have improvised the story a little bit. I first heard this from my father and he first heard it from his father, my lovely grandfather. The moral of the story is that you can choose to either use or refuse a resource. A resource can be as simple as broken strands of hair. Never leave a chance to put " jugaad" at work. It will always make you very happy and in some cases you can make a job out of it, same as the hair collector did.
Do you know what does "JUGAAD" means ?
ReplyDeleteIt is attempting to do more, with less resources .
Jugaad refers to your creativity to do tough things in a much simpler manner.
Yes it surely does!
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