Every once in a way

The good part about being in India is that you toss your clothes into a basket & back they come washed & pressed. In the US, you can still toss your clothes into a basket but in this country, they just sit there looking dirty & crumpled. So you'll have to demean yourself by washing your own clothes. And while you're at it, you might as well be reading a book by the hotel's poolside, if listening to the washer & dryer is not exactly an eclectic practice of leisure as far as you're concerned.

So there I was sitting in my most nerdy pose looking absorbed & boring when a sweet woman came by & said that I'll have to excuse her for lunch. I figured that she was in charge of looking after the guests by the poolside & the gymnasium. I quickly assured her that I had no intentions of jumping into the water or out of the building, & she could bet a hundred dollars that I wouldn't touch the gymnasium with a barge pole.

Now I carried on reading & in the absolute solitude of the poolside, it occurred to me that I should tell the woman about how she is working for a "visionary" company. I say this because the book I was reading was "Built To Last - By Jim Collins", & it spoke about these great companies which have been exemplary in both their commercial & social aspects - so much so as to be treated as icons in their respective industries. Marriott, the hotel I was staying at, was one of them.

So I read for a while more before the woman came back. I calculated that my clothes must have dried by now. So on the way out, I excused myself & explained to the woman what I had read about Marriott & asked her how she felt about working here in the light of what I had just told her. Here is what she had to say in her slightly Hispanic flavoured English:

“Thank you, Sir. I have not read the book. But it does not surprise me. I know that I am working for a great company. I know because I see it on the face of everyone that works here.”