No time to stand and stare

No time to stand and stare

The poet W.H. Davies wrote:

What is this life, if full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

We indeed live in a fast world today. Disposable incomes having gone up many of us

have cars which can speedily take us from point A to point B. And yesterday in Chennai

it took me more than an hour-and-a-half to travel a meagre distance of 12 kilometres.

This being so, people really don't have the time. I wonder what Davies would have written

if he were to rewrite the above poem today.

But people have the heart. They may not have the time to put pen on paper and write a letter.

They have the cell phone from which they can quickly send a message.

Recently my friend Shafiullah sent me this message from his cell phone:

Thank u for your support, we have received the order from ABC company.

This one line is sufficient to understand Shafiullah's frame of mind.

Bobby Darin sang: Multiplication, that's the name of the game. But today in a dog-eat-dog

scenario it is undercutting, that's the name of the game.

When I was talking to Shafi sometime back he had told me that he has been receiving regular

orders from ABC company. Soon after this, an official from ABC company rang me up and wanted to know if I could supply them 10 air-conditioners. I wanted ABC company to know and appreciate that the price at which they are buying from Shafi was a very good price and no purpose will be served if they scout around for a better price.

I quoted a higher price than what I thought would be the price at which Shafi supplied. ABC company told me okay and after some hesitation told me that they could not purchase units at a higher price than at which they were already buying. I immediately told them that the price at which they are buying they cannot get anywhere else and that they should continue to buy from Shafi. I also promptly rang up Shafi and told him what had transpired between me and ABC company. The order was saved for Shafi.

Had I been crazy enough to undercut Shafi, what would have happened?

Let us see tomorrow....