Filter Coffee #148

On Riding an Elephant to Catch a Grasshopper

It is heartening to see that with each posting of FC, people are subscribing to the post. I am very grateful. Please do feel free to recommend FC to anyone keen on such content. 

It felt good that none of my readers had any dilemma in giving their opinion on  FC #147. 

• One of my regulars, Tarun says: “I can think of one-liners that bring out ‘Fire in the belly’ very well by some sports companies -1) Impossible is nothing! 2) The harder I train, the luckier I get! Unless acted on relentlessly and pragmatically. Fire in the Belly could be counterproductive – just frustrated wishful thinking!”

• R G Rajan’s words are encouraging: “Excellent post Pras. Please continue with your weekly posts. They are interesting, fun to read and very often bring a smile to my lips.”

• Nisha Sinha observes: “Great one, Prasanna! And a good one to inspire students too. Here's one from Bruce Lee, though it does not fit the prudence formula. ‘A goal is not always meant to be reached. It often serves simply as something to aim at.’”

• Cdr V K Santhanam(R) notes: “Before even finishing your lovely Filter Coffee # 147, reading the words ‘concomitant virtue’ made me seek examples. Such usage these days is very rare as the next gen do not even have the patience to write the word YOU completely, rather use ‘U’. Many such have crept in this era of fast food.”

• Lakshmi Raman generously comments: “I enjoyed your post on 'fire in the belly' and how it is the result of continuous moral action, prudence, courage and discretion in a social environment. You are a model of this – passionate about being active, disciplined and helpful to others. Many think the 'fire in the belly' goes out as we age. I don't think so. It depends on how much we engage with life and its many pursuits.”

• Shereyar Vakil says : “Dear Pras, no doubt one must have fire in the belly but also an eye of the tiger to follow one's passion. Fire to ignite the passion and eye to focus on the goal. I like the way you filter your coffee each week.”

🐘 Ride an Elephant to Catch a Grasshopper

This is a popular Thai idiom which means, putting in a lot of work and getting little in return.

The home grown equivalent could be खोदा पहाड़ निकला चूहा which means: dug a mountain and out came a mouse.

I chose this topic to highlight the plight of people who put in a lot of effort or toil all day but end up getting very little in return. I saw this malnourished lady who had a small baby wrapped in a cloth on her back (a far cry from baby carrier bags & belts that you see on Amazon) and carrying gravel on a road construction site. I wondered how much she may be earning for an eight-hour shift. Assuming she is paid minimum wages, it would still be incommensurate with the efforts she puts in. There are women workers whose life becomes misery if their husband is a waster and a boozer. He has no qualms about beating her up and extracting money to get drunk, oblivious to his child's craving for a glass of milk. So much work and so little in return.

This has a parallel to a home-maker. The lady of a lower-middle-class household is up with the lark and is on her feet even as it gets dark. Household help becomes unaffordable, and the lady ends up doing all the chores. The kids grumble when she reminds them of homework, yet they want her to find something that they misplaced. The husband has not a nice word to say to her for all the efforts she puts in to pack his lunch and cook dinner for the family, not to forget that she does the laundry in between kitchen chores. I may be generalising a bit here but as I have observed it is a fact that many women find themselves toiling and sweating for the family. Does she get any sweat equity? A far cry. A word of appreciation is what she would long for which never comes her way. She is taken for granted. So much struggle and so little in return.

The all too familiar phrase ‘it’s a thankless job’ is all about someone in an office set-up extending herself to be recognised for her commitment to the job she holds and yet not a word of appreciation comes her way. When the annual appraisal and increments are due she is given a rating that belittles her efforts, and, to add insult to injury or like rubbing salt in her wounds, she is given a meagre increment citing some non-existent HR policy.

You have heard the phrase ‘fly on the wall’, right? So, be that fly on the wall of the HR guy’s office. Her agony is palpable. Everyone seems to laying the blame at her door. Employees are led to believe that HR is the villain and that ‘HR Policy’ is the reason for their getting a raw deal.

There are many jobs which get very little appreciation in return. I have known teachers who are a harried lot today. The students are often rude and disrespectful. Mocking the teacher is an accepted behaviour. Accepted, because if the teacher complained about or ticked off a student, it is not the student who is called to the principal's office. Rather the teacher is asked to apologise to the mother of the student or look for a job where her disciplined approach is accepted, which means nowhere. The mother is triumphant that the teacher is taught a lesson. So much effort and nothing in return, not even a proverbial grasshopper or the mouse! 

My wife feels very bad for the municipal staff who clean the streets and clear the garbage. Those ladies are not even given ‘easy-to-push’ wheelbarrows or brooms that they can use without having to sprain their backs. Day in and day out they pick up the same dirty stuff that people feel entitled to throw at the street corner a few feet away from the designated bin! So much sweat, and yet not a kind word in return.

Many people have been in hospitals and have seen the kind of selfless service that nurses render. They are the crutches for the doctors who leave instructions on the case sheets and expect the nurses to carry out their orders to the T. I have been in the hospital and have experienced the shouting the nurses get, not just from the doctors, but also from the patients. Some patients even try to lure a nurse into giving them priority of attention by offering some kind of inducement, which the duty-conscious nurse politely declines without betraying the feeling of insult that she experiences. Some doctors may have failed to give proper instructions but have no qualms about blaming the nurses. These sisters, as they are known, cannot nurse a grudge but trudge along and attend to patients who get well and profusely thank the doctors but forget they existed. So much hard work and yet such little appreciation!

I am a feminist, and have seen women struggle – whether they are home-makers or career women. I always remember the women in my life who shaped my thinking and my personality.

Please spend a few minutes reading 🔗https://mrprasanna.substack.com/p/filter-coffee-037 

Riding an elephant to catch a grasshopper is an idiom that applies to mining ventures. One may undertake expensive explorations but discover nothing that can be commercially exploited.

Back home, one can relate this idiom to sinking a bore well. After going down many feet and seeing your money going down the chute you realise you have hit a rock but no water. It’s boring and frustrating.

All efforts going in vain is another dimension of not getting anything in return. Like an athlete training for months and spraining his ankle on the date of the run. There’s also a saying in Persian: ‘one's yarns changed back into cotton’ which implies that all the efforts made in producing the yarn are wasted.

Dear Readers, please share your encounters with someone who has done a lot but has got very little in return. 

In keeping with the theme of the post let me end with this cute little poem by Anon.

Way down south where bananas grow,

A grasshopper stepped on an elephant’s toe

The elephant said, with tears in his eyes,

“Pick on somebody your own size.”

Take care friends, and do what you wish to, not expecting anything in return. You then ride an elephant unmindful of the grasshopper. Ciao!