Learning big from seemingly small ways

1 pm in my company’s canteen – People flocking to the food counter shouting out their dishes. Those who look the most sophisticated shout the maximum, “arey mere egg biryani ka kya hua yaar”....”arey aadha ghanta ho gaya” (when actually he/she would have entered just five minutes ago)…”raju, spoons sab kidhar reh gaya yaar…mera dish aa gaya hai jaldi leke aa”…”aachar kidhar hai bhai?”….”aaj chaas ya lassi nahi banaya kya?”…..”dahi dede yaar ab neeche se coupon leke aane mat bol” so on and so forth…
I work for a software company, as many of my contemporaries would agree, people having different mind sets come to the canteen during lunch time. Some in a hurry to finish their lunch and get back in time for a meeting at 2, some in a hurry to finish their lunch and get back to work which they have left at a point where after thinking that everything is done they have got an exception while testing, some who have all the time in the world and walk into the canteen from the game room, some eager to meet their mates from other projects and get the latest gossip or simply happy to be together as that’s the only time to catch up. The entire office is in the canteen at this peak hour. Hungry and likely to become Angry customers, time critical job, working under pressure ,supreme need for quality oriented product and service, need for managing scarcity of resources at times (man power or product wise) without hampering service….these requirements sound more like the jobs we do and take pride in. But the scenario that I tried to elucidate a few lines back more than proves that the canteen walla’s job falls in the same line as ours. That crucial time from 1 to 2 in the afternoon and 6 30 to 7 30 in the evening….I bet they don’t even realize if they are breathing. Yet the most beckoning aspect that I observe in each one of them is the smile they wear on their face each day. They do the same work every day, see the same faces, prepare more or less the same dishes yet they smile while working. Swift hands at work, roaring instructions to mates yet calm speech with employees. They respond to every employee’s grievance assuring them that their demands will be met, taking up responsibility and apologizing for every minute delay in getting the dishes on table. Whenever I see them I think to myself this is something we should learn from. They haven’t been given any management lessons, but its’ by experience and good intentions that they work the way they do. Just a simple smile while working not only makes you happy from inside but also spreads it to the outside. Sometimes small things that we overlook or fail to notice can teach us in big ways….like Ranchod das baba from 3 idiots famously puts it, “There is knowledge and learning everywhere and from everyone around.”