All you need to do is smile.
On Sunday we were at the Café coffee day opposite Don Bosco
high School at Matunga. This place somehow has been a favorite of mine. Every time
we get good guys for service attached here. Around eight years back, this was a
favorite haunt for Jasmine, V-inu and me. Many evenings were spent here. I would
come in from office and we would all catch a coffee there. Whenever there was a
bit of stress at home with mom and all that… a coffee to soothe the nerves was
a welcome break at this café. Jispa too played
a lot here. Whenever Dinesh who was in Paraguay at the time came into
India, we would again spend evenings at this café. There was a certain warmth
with the café.
Over some time, the café décor seemed a bit dated and AC
would not work as well and the chairs would be a little wobbly and we too moved
to Wadala. This café moved out of our sight and mind. Recently they redid the café.
The essential layout remained the same but the décor looked new and fresh. The
AC was new and the furniture no longer wobbled. We made it back to the café.
These days I have been noticing a lovely trend. Girls from
middle /low income households working at stores and cafes in Mumbai. They are
pretty sweet, know a bit of English to get around and are eager to smile. They are
not the sales girls of yester years that came with an attitude and looked at
every male guy who smiled as a guy wanting to pass a line. In variably these
new girls are dressed smartly in work uniforms which are pants. I remember
reading somewhere or was it my teacher
telling me that one of the big developments after the world wars was that women
worked shoulder to shoulder with the men in factories producing stuff for the war
while their men went out in the battle field and fought it. One of the things that
they learnt to do is wear work pants. This helped them work, and the stupid
skirts no longer restricted movement. It far easier to wear pants that skirts
when you have to work. I think this is a major development as far as women
empowerment goes. Now they don’t have to look girly or even behave like one. They
stand next in line to the guys and can do whatever the guys does, even possibly
better. From the dressing there is no way to know who is weaker or incapable of
working hard. Pants bring men and women together in many ways. Jasmine could never wear pants while growing
up. Her dad was far too conservative for that. But after engagement she wore
what she wanted to and now – she doesn’t have a single skirt in her wardrobe. Every
day wear for her is track pants. They are easy and efficient.
I am seeing kids (girls) across India now wearing pants. Their
parents are allowing them to do so and slowly they will grow up wearing them. In
college today no girl comes to college ever in a skirt. Even mini skirts are
rare – they rather wear shorts. To me it shows that these kids are growing up
to believe that they are capable of doing a lot, irrespective of their gender. This
is the generation that will lift the nation’s income and attitude. These girls
will grow up and kick their husbands. They will play a greater role in shaping their
child’s independent thinking.
I have also realized that they are open to conversation. They
smile back and …. A big one… if casually, they give great service or something
and if I pat their shoulder, they don’t shudder. It’s ok.
Coming back, this CCD has a good bunch of staff. Smiley and
cute. These girls tend to be shorter than the average, possibly alluding to the
situation that they possibly did not get enough nutrition in their growing up
years. There has been a lot of research that the girl child gets lesser
nutrition than the male and hence their height over the long run gets affected.
It just takes two generations to sort this right with adequate nutrition.
So these cute tiny girls smile a lot when I give them the
order. And I have a habit of constantly thanking the staff. I think I started
this after Jispa was born and after I got comfortable with myself. Possibly after
dealing with five stars or something. I don’t know. I can talk to any one right
from the five star lobby manager to the usher at the cinema. Talk sweetly and
thank them for their service. Then the next thing I do is call them by their
name. They have a name tag – it must be used, right? So I gave one cute lady
the order and thanked her and then when the order came to the table by another
lady I thanked her as well. I have precise instructions many times. I want the
coffee a little hot, I want an extra glass, one sugar sachet is enough etc. I
must said thank you one time too many. And the lovely cute lady smield back and
said “sir, aap itna thank you kyun bolte ho” (why do you thank me so many
times?). “well if you keep giving me good service I will continue to thank you”.
I always like to thank people for working. It’s a tough job and at the least –
they should get a nice smiley customer who thanks them for their work done.
Lovely service must be rewarded by simple praise. And repeat
business. So we went there again on Sunday. This time there was a lot of rush
happening. There was an interschool chess tournament at Don Bosco and kids and
parents were thronging to the CCD. They were overwhelmed. The lady at the cash counter
recognized me and smiled. I asked her hows it going. She told me that today was
huge day for them. They are doing record business and the crowd is great. She has
been working whole day. They even got staff to come in from other stores to
cope with the rush. I could see that they were in huge trouble. Orders were getting
wrong, especially when clients wanted some customization. Orders were taking
time and the customers being affected by the heat outside weren’t exactly
forgiving. Luckily I got a seat that gave me ringside action to the stress they
were in. Tempers and irritations were obvious inside the team. This team doesn’t
normally work together and they were put in to work in a hostile and demanding
environment. The manager was trying to work as hard as possible. But there was
an issue…
That’s the problem with India. The pressure on growth drives
corporates to expand and open as much as possible. What goes wrong is in the
training of the people. These cute ladies weren’t smiling as much as they
should have. The first response to an aggrieved customer was not a disarming
smile or a body language that said – yes I am listening. It was .. no but this
is what you asked for. For a service
joint, food is only a small fraction of the cost. McDonalds understand this
very well and has a lovely policy here. They just take the stuff back and give
you new stuff. Burger is cold – ok, thank you sir, dump it goes and here – take
this new one. Once in a delhi Mac, I spilled all the cola while taking it to
the table, NO Problem sir. We will clean it and voila – new coke was on my
table.
As I saw them, I thought to myself… the only thing that is
important here is that the manager should smile. The captain must smile in such
situations. I always try and keep my spirits high when a match is going against
me. SMILE. Don’t shout and don’t scream. SMILE. Then I realized that this
simple learning is what I seem to have missed recently in office. I was losing
my cool a bit too often for my comfort. Smile, Shit happens. At one time I used
to be the cool dude who smiled when you did shit. My smiling when shit happened
was enough for guys to feel like shit. Smile. I explained the situation to my
daughter. See what’s happening. Look at the stress, see how they are behaving
with each other. The only thing is for the captain to smile. At least he will
improve the atmosphere inside the pantry at the CCD outlet. This will start a virtuous
cycle. His staff will smile, his staff will smile with each other and then at the
customer. Things will move smoother. Smile.
A simple learning that I have had all along but forgotten in
the middle. Smile. I do it on the cricket field all the time. Smile. We lost the
match we should have won. Smile. The guy just thrashed my bowler for the biggest
six on the ground – Smile. Be aggressive, go for the jugular, but smile. The
memory of the South African captain Hansie Cronje is etched in my memory. He normally
has a dull dour image on the cricket field, he rarely smiled. But once in one
match when the normally reticent Rahul Dravid was tearing his bowlers apart in
a rain truncated match, the Proteas seemed to be losing the plot. My memory of him smiling as broadly as
possibly that day, is something I will never forget. Possibly I have that
memory of the cricket field and possibly I don’t have any similar memory of
office. But I have to try and do that. Smile. It’s different from Don’t worry
be happy. Worry , stress out, anything, but smile. You will learn to cope
better and your team might cope better. If there is shit in your head, don’t spill
it in the open. Smile.
