Quote by Mr. Thiru

Cyclone Thane was hovering somewhere close to Chennai skies.  The winds were erratic and the rain gaining momentum, I decided to work from home. The year was drawing to a close and business was at its lowest – was the justification I gave to the ‘working from home’ status of mine, which more often than not turned out to be ‘working for home’ than ‘from home’.

My friend (neighbor) and her family invited me for lunch and I was more than happy to get some tasty homemade food without venturing into the rain. Of course as all of us would do, I maintained a good boy image and answered precisely to the questions that were thrown at me. The topic switched to IT and Corporate life not only because my friend worked in one but also because their guest a well-mannered young man (well that is me) had the same back ground. Even though her parents were not too much acquainted with IT and related industry her Dad had his own say in the topic from the perspective of a retired EB engineer. The topics kept floating around but my voice subsided as the nostrils picked up the aroma of the food around me puffing out steam.

Food over took my thoughts and the last topic of discussion I remembered was something to do about stress at work and Uncle had his own say on his days at Thermal power station. All of a sudden there was a little laughter that brought my senses back to the discussion. My friend repeated the same to benefit me. It was something to do with motivation - which one of her colleague took upon himself and made it a point to jot down a quote every day on the white board in their bay.

Wealth (gained) by the ear is wealth of wealth; that wealth is chief gain of all wealth.

-          By Thiru

Well whatever the saying meant it was for all to understand but my friend was slightly puzzled not by the quote or its meaning but by the “By Thiru” part of it at the end. After much deliberation she decided to ask the person who put it up on the white board. He was more than willing to explain the meaning, which she eagerly listen to awaiting the “by Thiru” part. At last he did reach the “by Thiru”, looks like his answer has dragged the rest of her colleagues into a roar of laughter.

By the way, I was also eager to know Mr. Thiru and then found out it was Thiruvalluvar the quote was from the classic of couplets - Thirukkuṛaḷ.

Later, I learnt that the person writing these daily quotes neither hailed from Tamil Nadu nor knew Tamil that justified the fact that it is not strange for him to address the great Thiruvalluvar as Thiru. Never the less the employee certainly deserves an appreciation for the attitude of sharing “his 2 cents” for his team.