MAKE THE MESS CRIBBER THE MESS SECRETARY
Is
cribbing in our DNA?
Though we cannot
generalize it, most of us crib and complain about some things, sometimes… if
not about all things, all the times. So, it is very much there in our DNA!
I do complain
about some things, sometimes… Yes, I do crib about them. But, mercifully, I am
not a ‘chronic’ or a ‘habitual’ cribber. If you sweetly explain to me – rather gently
massage my ego a little – that is enough to pacify me. I will immediately stop
complaining and cribbing!
This post is
about those who are hardcore cribbers… the chronic ones… who try to find fault
in everything, everywhere and everyday… who have made cribbing their business,
even their livelihood.
How to deal
with such a cribber?
“Make him the
Mess Secretary?” A retired gentleman told us, last night. Obviously, we were
discussing about some chronic cribbers around us. The gentleman took us back to
our school and college days. He narrated, “There was this warden in our college
hostel who knew how to ‘fix’ the habitual cribbers. The students who most cribbed
about the mess – about the quality of food, mess charges and timings and who
always pointed to what was wrong with the mess – yes, our warden would pick
them up to be the Mess Secretary. Automatically, the cribbing would end.”
“This was how
our class teachers, too, would deal with the most mischievous students in the
class,” recalled another gentleman, “They made such students the class
monitors!”
Cribbing is a
habit. And, like all other habits, once we allow this habit to go into our DNA…
it becomes the proverbial old-habit. And, you know what that proverb says: “Old
habits die hard!”
Probably, what
the hostel warden and school teachers did years ago… yes, this old trick is the
only trick that still works: Make the mess cribber the ‘mess secretary’!
GERAL D’CUNHA
Pic. Nicole Gubin-O'Ryan
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