3) 30 POINT SOMETHING AS A HOTELIER AND PLEASE DON’T ASK ME WHY!!

1. THE OWNER: The owner behaves like a true waiter and a  waiter behaves like an owner.
2. FREE DELIVERY: Come whatever, as long as hotel is in business, milk, vegetables and groceries are delivered at doorstep.
3. HOW MUCH FOR THIS: The women in the house never know the ever rising and seldom falling prices of the above mentioned commodities.
4. THE BEHAVIOUR: If customer comes for 20 minutes and bills 20 bucks he behaves as if he owns the hotel for those 20 minutes.
5. SUNDAY FUN: If your hotel is closed on Sundays, the owner has sleepless nights on a restless Sunday.
6. FREE-LUNCH: More free-lunches have to be offered to various “Officers” than to owners own sons and daughters.
7. INDUSTRIOUS: A hotel owner is the last to sleep in the town (washing dishes) and is always the first to wake up in the town (preparing dishes).
8. FLASH-PARTY: In case of “Bandhs” the whole family their neighbors, friend and relatives have a sudden feast, provided unenthusiastically by the owner.
9. LABOUR LAWS: Labor laws are meant as corollary incentives to officers and trouble the hoteliers. Talk about these laws to the labor himself he disappears the next day.
10. FREE WATER and SAMBHAR: Hotelier must provide free water for bathing and washing to his neighbors whenever need arises. And Sāmbhar when his neighbors do not cook vegetables.
11. UDUPI FACILITY: In the incremental order of bills the top-ups are never meant to be paid. For example for bills of rupees 12, 108, 212 or 535 you will get 10, 100, 200 and 500 paid respectively.
12. RICH: For unknown reasons a hotel “wallah” is always considered to be stinking rich.
13. MONEY-MONEY: I know that all my hotel “wale” relatives will empathize that he permanently harbors money in the pocket, which is always deficit for payment.
14.   BREAKFASTS: Ninety percent of Udupi hotel owners have Idli and Vada sambhar for their breakfast. Some may prefer upma. Dosas are luxurious delights.
15. SAMBHAR: This is the towns envy and it remains the hotelier’s ultimate pride and identity.
16. SAMBHAR Ver 2.0: The recipe is so patented that even the hotelier’s son does not know it. Mainly because no owner wants his son to be an hotelier again.
17. SAMBHAR Ver. Final: This is the most loved cuisine in the town, but the customer never pays for volumes of extra Sāmbhar savored.
18. FAIL: Cooking skills are exercised by the hotelier in his home with recipes experimented from the top half geographically distributed regions of India, but every dish smells like Sāmbhar.
19. HAIR IN THE DISH: When eating elsewhere (during tours) an hotelier never complains if he has a hair or an insect in his dish.
20. BLOOD DONAR: An hotelier is the one who “Donates” the most and one of the reasons, of many, why Udupi hotels do not sustain over time.
21. JUST DO IT: There are high chances that even the owner of any biggest five star hotel in this world, once had washed dishes, cooked food and/or served people with his own hands.
22. TEA: Only new born babies in the house of an hotelier do not know how to make or drink teas.
23. COFFEE: If available – What is tea? And sadly only a South Indian knows how to brew a good coffee.
24. HOUSE: For clear cut reasons the owner stays just above his hotel with the rest of his joint family.
25. WOMEN POWER: Women customers come to Udupi hotels (who used to come as school going girls) eat and purchase till their purses are empty and demand the hotel owner who is their rightful “Kaka” or “Mama” for the auto-rickshaw fare to return home.
26. MAIRRAGE: An hotelier may bring a bride for his son who is a daughter of an hotelier but he never wants his daughter to be married off to another hotelier.
27. EMPLOYMENT OFFICE: An Udupi hotel is a big employment office for all those relatives of the hotelier who are unemployed.
28. SWEETS AND GHEE: By default for unknown reasons an hotelier always distributes sweets and homemade ghee to his near and dear ones.
29. FAST FOOD: An hotelier or his comrade never goes hungry.
30. RE-TIRE: An hotelier never retires, but dies in his hotel.
    

2) STREET SMART DOGS OR INTELLECTUAL LIONS

My father was eldest and three of my cousin sisters were minor when my uncle died. Least I had imagined in the future years, when my father will leave me alone in this evolutionary process, I will have evolved  into the role of father for not only my own two offspring but also for these three little cute girls. So my job at Udupi hotel was not only an obligation but mandatory, for not only earning the daily bread for the entire family, but also for remaining in the modern evolutionary process. With my son the only other man in this female dominated house I had to play my role to felicitate the process of human evolution and modernization. I was the by default chosen captain of my huge ship. These included maintaining the needs of education, books, dresses and also the side effects of evolution like dish TV, mobiles, phone, cars, bikes, tourism, only to mention the tip of the iceberg. I used to return from college to join additional duty as an hotelier which would continue till 11:00 pm. Though my identity always remained unique I wonder that this transformation from “Sir” to “Seth” daily and again back to “Sir” in the morning may have been central to my never ending fondness to characters of Superman and Spiderman who always led a dual life.

STREET SMARTNESS Vs INTELLECTUAL SMARTNESS 

During one such regular day when I had just returned from my college and was in my hotel service counter, I had a call on my mobile and was a bit surprised to see my Principal calling. I was a junior amongst senior colleagues a majority of whom were in a countdown mode for retirement, including the caller. Why would he have needed me after the office? I alone cannot make evolution a faster process after all.  So I rode my bike to his house. He offered me to sit down and began speaking, being in the practice of learned and enhanced “Listening” for quite some time, especially after authoring a book on the process of “Listening”,  I listened to him, in the process profiting a share from his evening cup of tea. My principal was an elderly man with few years left for retirement, our principal was a purist academician. He had a shrewd mind with a desire to retire as a grade one Principal. As a principal he kept himself updated with modern times and expedited huge funds from the UGC to develop our private college. The present three stored cement buildings evolving from ten years back wooden partitions are living proofs of our evolutionary efforts. He always had diplomatic plans for development. Knowing from my interests in photography and Videography, he had called me to initiate an audio-visual cell in the college, which will help in creating audio-visual educational materials.In our country when discussions amongst people advances and when conversing people are not in their respective official roles, then the dialogues leave behind formalities and the persons involved in such deliberations become candid. Ironically my father breathe his last a few months back and the Principal had his teenage son on the verge of academic career. This information may be irrelevant in this situation, but I remember Sigmund Freud had mentioned in his book ‘Interpretation of Dreams’ that 95% of subconscious mind always keeps working. So maybe I was lending him a respectful ear like I would have given to my dad, and he was showing affection which he may have desired to implement on his son. As our discussions went on it ranged from ethics and morality, work, campus, and as most of us we Indians finally arrive to that is, philosophy. He became emotional at one time and told me that the biggest failure in his carrier was that he could achieve everything for his post but he could not motivate his people. In a tone of confession he gave a reason for calling me home and requested to take up the project of creating e-content materials in the form of audio-video resources.  As a part of my inherited character I accepted without any inquisitive skills and left. Later on I went on to use my crossword solving abilities and coined various anagrams for the purpose and came up with a name “Dnyan- Aver” which was readily accepted by the Principal. DNYAN was an abbreviation for the college name “Dnyanopasak” and AVER stood for Audio Visual Educational Research, which also means ‘an affirmation of truth’. 

In the latter years I was responsible for creating recorded lecture series with PowerPoint slide displays under this banner. If a student missed a basic Lecture he could play the CDs on his player or computer and listen to the lecture again and again.  I enjoyed this creative job, which had no monetary incentives but gave me something greater and that was a pleasure. It is true that when you enjoy your work you don’t feel like working. A product sample of that evening rendezvous could be found at this link:

 A GENETICS LECTURE ON TRANSCRIPTION (Sample)

Even today my Principals sincere admittance that “I could not motivate people” rings in my ears. I keep thinking about it and find the truth in his statement. You cannot motivate someone who refuses to listen. We do not listen to people because what they say is different from our thoughts. We keep imposing our opinion on the speaker. To get motivated the first thing is to listen and listening without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.

 In this competition of the modernized world everyone is smart enough and wants to outnumber the other they subconsciously keep doing this by giving opinions. Most opinions are full of emotions and we collect as many as we would like without putting out any effort at all. It is only natural to have opinions, but knowledgeable opinions take effort and are harder to collect. We believe that our intuitions and spontaneous opinions are the final words. But we should not be so quick to give judgments.

People are smart and loyal to their jobs. People are smart enough for this competition game but not smart enough to realize that there is clear cut border of street smartness and intellectual smartness. This identity crisis remains in most individuals of the campus. As a Zen master has said you cannot fill the glass which is already full, it needs to be emptied first. Sincerity counts over loyalty. The problem with loyalty is that it is attached to the sentiments and sentiments have no place in the professional jungle. As Confucius summarizes “Every normal human being cherishes the aspiration to become a superior man—superior to his fellows, if possible, but surely superior to his own past and present self. The mind of the superior man is conversant with righteousness; the mind of the ordinary man is conversant with gain. The superior man in all things considers righteousness essential”. 

AN ARMY AND ITS LOYAL LEADER 

Once various department heads approached our Institutional President for renovating their labs and a plan with infrastructure development. The President just sent them back with a deaf ear. The heads were disillusioned. Years passed and this episode became a folktale, passing on from seniors to juniors. I kept hearing this story in libraries, canteens and every other gathering. The president was an ex-minister in the Indira Gandhi regime and now a member of parliament from the opposition party. He had leaded a sincere political life and barring controversies had a reputation being a good human being. I wondered why he didn't entertain his think tank when they approached him for the justified infrastructure developments. In the latter years our college was applying for quality accreditation, which is a mandatory government rule and it consists of various parameters comprising of one thousand marks. Out of these only thirty marks were allotted for infrastructure. The soul of the campus was considered more important than its body. 

I remember studying a North-Eastern college report, as a member of one of the committee during NAAC accreditation of our college. The report praising that college, which had poor infrastructure procured a A+ grade with CPE and the report had stated that “this institute is one of the best known colleges not only of Meghalaya but also of the North Eastern States. It is also one of the leading institutions affiliated to North Eastern Hill University and a deserving candidate for the autonomous status. The most outstanding feature of the College is the diversity of its teaching programs, which is a mix of traditional and vocational courses. The College has proved its responsiveness to the needs of the region, by taking into account the population it serves in the choice of courses offered”. I was a member of the report formation committee and had realized why Mr. The president turned a deaf ear to infrastructure proposals. The people who went there were no doubt loyal but were not professional in their approach. The president not listening to them hurt their loyalty. It would never hurt a professional. Our college was rewarded a B plus grade, which today with sincere efforts of our Principal and NAAC Coordinator had re-accredited itself to  A.

The million dollar question which needed a answer for me was  is it sentimental Loyalty or ethical Professionalism which is needed in professions. Loyalty is a character which is more needed at home, with your family and friends where it is most valued. Dogs are loved and needed in homes, ask someone who has a dog as his pet. Emotions and sentiments are personal assets which can be applied to gain strength. Emotions should not make a man weak. Rather than getting stuck in a sentimental issue man should learn to move on. This is how we can evolve into more modern beings. After all man is the stakeholder of evolution. In his work he should be professional in his approach and strong in his character. A successful man is the one who recognizes the needs of progress where he is working. After all more fearful is an army of sheep led by a lion than an army of an army of lions led by a sheep. A lion and not a dog always inhabits the hearts of brave men. We as leaders need to be more like lions at offices than dogs. So I conclude, that Loyalty is a must,  weather be in a hotel or a college (or any other profession). But it is "Loyal Professional Sincerity" which counts more than anything in giving you a good nights sleep, after a "Smart days work". Whereas "Sincere Sentimental Loyalty" is more for people who prefer "Hard-work" over "Smart work".

1) "EVOLUTION" FROM A 
HOTEL TO A CLASSROOM

Every man finishes his days’ work at the office and goes home to relax. This is a natural modern evolutionary ritual in human civilization. I call it modern evolution because this liberty was not enjoyed by the primitive cavemen who always were on their feet till the food was earned. Once he got his share, he could not endure the relaxed mode for long, like other animals. Species other than man feel the necessity for their next hunt only after hunger strikes the cerebral chord. 

Though I am no evolutionary scientist, nevertheless on the basis of present day practices I can draw ancient perspectives. I imagine on my own that man may have never remained idle and being industrious was a gods inheritance  He thought of gaining more and more food, initially for his family, then as a stock, then for friends, relatives and finally for trade. So he always kept hunting and never relaxed. I always believe that man yearns to remain with his roots and always tries ways for achieving that. So as his ancestors never relaxed, a modern man can thus never remain so. In his pursuit he has now converted his horses into computer desks, once his faithful hunting dog is now his scrolling electronic mouse, his arrows and spears for the wild jungle have transformed into cursors and arrow keys in the wild, wild, wild (www) jungle of internet, meat and wheat have been converted to burgers and pizzas. His artifacts of trade has now become paper (money) and plastic (credit, debit cards). Man once used to roam on his legs is now evolved into virtual roaming. He now has the facility of making his livelihood more convenient by sitting in the chair.  Human species never stopped from keep doing something larger and better, as he was the only naturally selected stakeholder in the process of evolution. The remaining animals were luckily relieved from the process of rapid evolution. Thank god for the rest of the poor species who choose not to evolve like man and thus also lost the benefits and risks of advancements. Anyway I could never Imagine sending SMS to my pet requesting to come back home for food, or a cow denying milk to a milkman via voice-mail. 

An irony in my life had been that everyone else in my office ends their days work around 6:00pm and return home with a feeling of “the end of the day” relaxation and have their own methods of easing the remaining hours with their family. I come home to continue the job of managing my ancestral Udupi hotel at home. This hotel and being a "hotelwallah" was a privilege baptized by birth which unknowingly got converted into a job as I grew. Being born in a typical South Indian joint family, which was managed by two brothers who migrated from Udupi (South Canara) to Parbhani (Marathwada) a small district of Maharashtra. My father was elder among the two in age and his younger brother was the leader in his deeds. I was the only hope and the burning lamp of the family, who was reluctant to glow in the traditional way. 

As traditional as it can get my father never wanted me to get into this hotel business and my uncle never wanted me to get out of it. My friends always wished I controlled the business, not out of good will, but for their own selfish gastrointestinal desires. I personally never knew what it was going to be in the future, but I admit that I enjoyed the daily brand new experiences of running a hotel, which never seemed to repeat or cease. Moreover my  dad and my uncle used to narrate the daily incidences with customers and service providers with such wit and humor at the dining table, that it had become our favorite entertainment time in those years. May be this "education" was subconsciously creating a liking for the job, which latter on played a very important role in managing the responsibilities  god had in store for me. 

My father encouraged me to keep studying as he thought it was the only way to keep me out of this ‘mess.’ So I studied and studied till I could study no more in the town. My uncle never objected to my studies, on the contrary he was proud of my mounting degrees, as no one in our entire family or any hotel owner in the town has a lad who was a PhD and sat on a hotel counter managing the hassles. With a flair for teaching I joined as a part time teacher in a private senior college. Without bothering the peanut salary at college, I could now manage lectures and the hotel counter with ease and much to the awe of students and customers. Paradoxically I have experienced in my "dual" life, of being a hotelier and a Lecturer that, both though have a common philosophy of providing satisfactory service, the human behavior pattern markedly varies. 

Being Clark Kent

When I am in the hotel – serving the customers just before going to my college job, following is what I feel and experience. As a hotel service provider you are always looked upon as a “Servant” and orders are given by customers, you have to take those “orders” and see that the customer is served to perfection. This attitude comes mainly from the fact that he pays you money after he eats. He is here to satisfy not only his hunger but also desires an entertainment for his taste buds. And you have to provide a “valuable” service. Every penny of the customer demands “satisfaction.” You remain head bowed, till he eats and burps his approval out. You thank him for proving you an opportunity to serve him and request him to come again. A small dissent by customer is taken as top-priority by each and every person from the management. Everyone exercises their wit and wisdom to see that the disagreement gets converted into a convention. And that customer remains in the subconscious memory of the service provider for so long that even his children and grandchildren are taken care of, by the hotel owner, who passes on the story of his experience to his sons, which eventually may pass on to his grandsons.

Transforming into a Superman

I used to step down the stairs of my hotel and enter the gates of my college as a “Lecturer”. The transformation was like from Clarke Kent to Superman. Paradoxically I have experienced in my "dual" life, being an hotelier and a Lecturer that both professions though share a common philosophy of “Serving” there exists a strikingly different human behavior pattern in each situation. The philosophy in both the profession is “Service.” But the treatment you ‘give and get’ from the other side is amazingly funny.

When I used to work as a part-time college Lecturer (from 1993-2006) I started with a peanut salary. My salary was 1.5K p.m. which eventually got upto 7K p.m during 2004 (but my financial year was made up of only eight months). Back home at my hotel the sweet makers, experts from Rajasthan, salary was 15K per month. My dad used to hand over the money and tell me to give it to them as it was their hard earned salary. I never remember my dad “delaying” their payment ever, on the contrary they always had a couple of months’ salary taken in advance, due to various reasons. I always felt funny that a PhD man earning a salary of Rs.1500/- per month was the one who monthly paid one of his worker 15000/- per month who was 4th Std. pass (proudly proclaimed by the sweet expert himself).

Entering the college gates I knew that the philosophy here to is same that of being service provider. I saw a few things in the “evolved caveman’ who became a Lecturer and I choose that I will not become like them. I decided that I will become a true service provider for the class which my dad did in the hotel. I am proud to put on record that after 20 years of service in both industries (hotel and college) I remain a true “waiter” yearning for customer satisfaction.

But surprisingly what I see seeing the picture is totally contrast to my practices. The “students” who were being served here, never behaved like my customers at the hotel who were very difficult to satisfy. The students were (read ‘are’ and sadly will always ‘remain’) highly submissive to the “service provider.” This gives that service provider (now the Lecturer) a feeling of a “Superman” instead of a “Servant.” This customer here is meant to satisfy his “hunger of the brain” but sadly even after making an advance payment (admission fees) long before he gets served, never realizes what he desires. He is forced upon a “menu” of courses and syllabus, and served according to the needs of the service provider and not the customer. He never is allowed to show dissatisfaction he keeps harboring the fears of failure. The “Waiter” here becomes the superman who does not allow dissent. He does not tolerate mistakes and has developed fear in the minds of his customers his prime weapon. Killing creativity, discouraging “out of the syllabus” acts by the students have been his prime defense mechanisms.

But luckily enough all this attributes to 40% of the academicians and the rest 60% are quite contrast to the things mentioned. There are serious “Service providers” who sweat out their blood for the students. Robert Frost had said “Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence”. Surprisingly same thing applies to all professions. But, I still think that  40% of what I mention is highly ridiculous. Strangely enough the major problems in Udupi hotels always had been lack of technical man power, whereas the major problems in the field of education is not only lack of good teachers but also lack of students with an burning desire to "achieve."

My dad never believed in advertising, he always said it projects everything but the truth. He said the best advertiser is you present customer, satisfy him and he will advertise free of cost. Whenever someone used to ask him how is your hotel running - my dad used to smile and answer "when you open a hotel - someone is bound to enter to eat something, its only how you see that he comes again with more of his friends." Now the same thing applies to colleges, if the course is a bread earner, more and more students will initially pour in, but it is the role of a good teacher to sustain that flow and create good human resources. No subject or course is ever bad, it only lies in the "hands and chalk" of the teacher. With ever growing population there is no dearth of unemployment in India but there definitely is lack of talent and with those possessing talents the desire to give 100% is a rare combination. There are plethora of opportunities for talented young people. But with these opportunities new challenges and responsibilities are delivered "free". The question is are we (the "Service Providers" and the "Receivers")  ready to take them head-on.