All of us during our life time must have encountered some incident which would have reminded us about the virtue of: Simple Living, High Thinking! Yet, as day-to-day life goes on, we tend to forget the meaning of this simple statement which indeed has a lot of depth to it.
Especially for us working in the business of garments, there is a lot of showmanship and glamour attached to fashion and the various fundas of foreign buyers and their visits and photo shoots and what not! We get so caught in the whirlwind of all this that it takes some small incident to happen which gives us a jolt and takes us back to reality that the simple joys of life do not emanate from glamour and showing off… but from the sincerity of simplicity which can touch your soul and leave its mark forever.
The story I am going to share with all of you today does have a touch of humour to it, and the humour is directed towards me because I was ignorant. Today, as I write this, I fully realize that simplicity is the true sign of success… it is not for nothing that our grandmoms told us about how a mango tree laden with the most fruit is always the one that is bending the most!
I was new in the garment industry and it was my first official trip to Tirupur. I was very excited as I was going there for the first time. I was supposed to fly from Mumbai to Coimbatore and then take the road route to reach Tirupur. My boss had delegated to me the responsibility of visiting a new factory that had been in touch with us regarding business and I was to visit their factory and showroom, see their production capabilities and product development strengths, and then report the matter back to my boss. We were looking for vendors who were not very big so that our orders should not get lost in huge units… but needed a small setup who would pay close attention to our specific requirements.
So the final day came and I flew to Coimbatore, very much aware of the trust placed on me by my boss. The vendor whom I was visiting was informed of my arrival along with a request to arrange for my transportation from the airport to Tirupur. We received a message saying a car was arranged for my driving down to Tirupur and I should look out for someone paging for me at the airport.
The flight landed on time and I duly picked up my luggage and moved out towards the Exit Gate. Many flights seemed to have landed at the same time, hence there was a huge crowd outside and many people holding the paging placards for the guests. I looked around, and saw a plump gentleman wearing a lungi, half folded and in a simple green shirt holding a placard with my name prominently displayed on it. It was a very reassuring sight that a driver had been sent for my pick up and I went straight to him. He greeted me and offered to take my luggage trolley which was handed over to him… and we moved towards the parking area and the car where the luggage was deposited and the gentleman opened the car door for me politely… and I settled myself comfortably in the back seat for the long drive ahead!
The gentleman took the driving seat and we drove towards Tirupur…, a long and tiring drive from Coimbatore airport. On the way he asked me a couple of questions which were quite smart and interesting like… How long have you been with this company? Which customer brand do you handle? What is the turnover? What all are the other factories? I answered them all thinking that the driver was so smart and knew so much about the garment industry… Wow…!
This was after all Tirupur, the hub of the jersey business and sure enough everyone knew what garment export was all about! And well… wasn’t this south India where people knew English better than Hindi and after all, drivers put on duty to transport foreign buyers definitely had to be conversant in the English language. I was duly impressed and already making a mental note of how I would prepare my trip report for my boss… starting with my first wonderful impression of the amazing hub called Tirupur!
I decided to take a little nap as he drove on… quite happy to realize that such a smart driver had been sent for my pick up!
When we reached the factory in Tirupur where I had to meet the Chairman of the company, he again very humbly took out my entire luggage from the car and took them inside to the Chairman’s room. I followed him. After putting the luggage at the side of the door, he came and sat on the Chairman’s seat… and gave me a big smile welcoming me to his office!!
I was shocked and embarrassed; the person I thought was the driver was actually the owner of the company…!!!!!!
As I discovered later, the driver deputed for my pick up had a family emergency just as he was getting started for the airport, and since no other driver was immediately available, the Chairman had decided to drive down himself to the airport to make sure that I was not stranded without a car on my very first visit to Tirupur…!
I was ashamed of myself and my conditioned mind which could not look deep into the simplicity of my host and simply accepted him as a driver when he was behind the wheel… and well… as the Chairman when he was at the Chairman’s chair in his office…! Here was a man to admire and look up to for he had not let success take away the fine virtue of humility from him… and he instantly became my hero at that moment.
The true person and his greatness behind his humble demeanour had simply missed my attention and I truly learnt a lesson to last all my life.
… Always to respect and honour simplicity, because it is true that… Simple Living is High Thinking!
