Did You drink that 2 litres of Milk?

A hot afternoon in a remote village in rural India. The period was 1950's. Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was travelling in a rickety jeep with hardly any escort, when the Jeep screeched to a halt as the driver applied his brakes in order to avoid hitting a person who was crossing the road unmindful of the danger.

Nehru looked up to see an old old man carrying a small brass container in one hand and a stick on the other crossing the road and looking at the jeep in bewilderment. Nehru, jumped out of the jeep, took a few quick steps, put his hand around the octogenarian and guided him across the road to safety. The old man screwed his eyes, looked at the smiling, humane face of Nehru and thanked him profusely. He thanked Nehru , but didn't recognise him.

On being queried who he was, Nehru humbly replied that he was the Prime Minster of India.

The old mans eyes lit up and he asked " Are you really Jawahar?".

When Nehru replied in the affirmative, the old man thrust the small container he had with him and told "Drink this".

Nehru was taken aback. The container contained at least 2 litres of cows milk and he was just coming from a sumptuous lunch. "Sir, I don't think I can drink this milk as I have just had my lunch"

The old man was disgusted, "Are you really Jawahar, the Prime Minister of India and who got India its freedom? How can a guy who cannot drink even 2 litres of milk, administer my India?"

Nehru understood immediately. Taking the container, he drank the 2 litres of milk in one gulp. The old man was pleased and gave a big toothless grin. Nehru politely took leave of him, got into the jeep and drove away.

I have always fondly remembered this story whenever I see our political leaders surrounded by security people and totally out of touch with the common man. They live in ivory towers and this lack of empathy is one of the reasons for the continued mess our country is in. Nehru's accessibility to the layman, his identifying with them and their comfort with him makes him stand apart. I do disagree with many of Nehru's policies and personal opinions. But he was a leader with charisma and very humane. They don't make leaders like Nehru these days. What we have is a bunch of self serving nincompoops and criminals. It is said that we get the leaders we deserve. But even we don't deserve our current bunch of political masters.

The story has some management angles. The Manager should be empathetic and in touch with the ground reality. He need to be empathetic and use what he can to gain the confidence of even the inconsequential. He need to demonstrate his leadership qualities in every single occassion, however irrelevant it may seem to him.

Also, more often that not, we baulk at taking additional work (the 2 litres of milk) citing that we are up to our neck with our current tasks and hence miss an opportunity to stretch ourselves and prove a point to others. There is always that little bit extra inside all of us to do something special.

Ask yourself everyday, "Did I drink that 2 litres of milk?"