Habitually, stories are heard during bedtime, but I listened this breathtaking story during breakfast (morning shift) in our office. When I appreciated the foodstuff made by our cook Nandu (real name is Nand Lal), he did not look very cheerful. After finishing the breakfast, I didn’t depart from the mess but everyone does. I asked Nandu, “You have returned from vacations and before that you had received your pay well in advance. You would have done so much shopping at this gala and festival season and had passed a celebrating time with your parents and siblings. Moreover, you are still a bachelor, why the hell you are not happy? I can lend you more money, if that can bring smile to your face.” I had to put an end to my speech because I realized that Nandu may start crying as Nandu now looked more heartbreaking & tear-jerking and at last, slowly said, “Saheb, I have a story, of my life, to tell.” Being alone in the mess was now getting interesting for me. To enter into my comfort zone, I said to Nandu, “OK, present me one cup of coffee and by the time I finish it, you may narrate your story.” After some couple of minutes, Nandu came with a cup of coffee in one hand and one napkin in another hand. He seemed more distressed & upset and said to me, “My story may bring tears into your eyes, so I brought this napkin for you.” In the next 5 minutes, Nandu narrated me his real time story and literally tears flooded into my eyes. Not because it was an emotional or tragedy-wrapped story but it was a totally different, unbelievable and funny story and I was not getting control over my loud laugh by imagining the scene as created by his comical story. Actually he was weeping and by etiquettes, how can I laugh out loud (LOL) in front of him.
Nandu wished to marry a farmer's lovely daughter in his village. He went to the farmer to ask his permission. The farmer looked him over and said, “Son, go stand out in that field. I'm going to release three bulls, one at a time. If you can catch the tail of any one of the three bulls, you can marry my daughter.” Nandu stood in the grazing land awaiting the first bull. The shelter door opened and out ran the biggest, meanest-looking bull he had ever seen. He decided that one of the next bulls had to be a better choice than this one, so he ran over to the side and let the bull pass through the grazing land out the back gate. The shelter door opened again. Unbelievable, he had never seen anything so big and furious in his life. It stood stroking the ground and groaning as it eyed him. Whatever the next bull was like, it had to be a better choice than this one. He ran to the fence and let the second bull also pass through the grazing land, out the back gate. The door opened a third time. A smile came across his face. This was the weakest, little bull he had ever seen. This one was his bull. As the bull came running by, he positioned himself just right and jumped at just the exact moment. He grabbed...but the bull had no tail!
Nandu returned empty handed. Neither he got the bull’s tail and nor the farmer’s daughter. Well I gave sympathy to him and returned back to work. In the lift, being alone, I laughed out loud (LOL) and cleared my wet eyes with that napkin and recalled the whole story and learned a beautiful lesson and hence, the ethical note of this story is -

Management Lesson: The message is loud and clear, life is full of opportunities. Obviously, some will be easy to take advantage of, some will be difficult. But once we let them pass (often in hope of something better), those opportunities may never again be available or may never come back. So, always grab the ‘first opportunity’ which may prove beneficial in your ‘career development’. Instead of bull’s tail, aim at bull’s eye!

Key-Note: This short story has been taken from the article ‘Career Planning and Career Development’ in my book ‘Human Resource Management’ with prior permission of the publisher. This is an original work and relevance to anybody (except Nandu of GHTP, Lehra Mohabbat) living or dead is purely co-incidence and is not intended to hurt feelings of anybody. Furthermore, I wish to say thanks for your over-whelming response to my maiden article ‘My First Interview’, which gave me enough satisfaction and motivation that I am again interacting with all of your good-selves, I shall personally attend you at [email protected] or you may sms me your comments/compliments; Jai Hind.