Grabbing Guilty Qualms
Human instinct works alike for everyone. We do have certain reactions while amidst a never-been-before situation. And affairs like these ask for our intellect. It’s crucial also to hold on to our immediate reaction because value once lost is hard to regain!
Something similar happened to Emperor Akbar once. Not in the court but in front of Birbal, inside the palace. What the emperor did afterward paves for a beautiful narration.
Care for the complete narrative? Let’s walk together!
Once, the emperor received a rare perfume as a gift. As he approached to open the bottle, two droplets of perfume fell to the floor.
Akbar instinctively attempted to grab it by wiping the floor with his fingers. Birbal, who was standing besides, pretty much noticed the emperor. And Akbar, while looking up, did see Birbal’s bemused face.
To change Birbal’s perception, the emperor summoned him the following morning to his bath. Akbar had asked his attendants to fill the bathtub with the best perfumes.
Akbar intended to show his royal standards to Birbal. He sought to show that an emperor of his order can afford rare perfumes as much as he wanted.
When Birbal arrived, he understood why Akbar had summoned him and the reason why the emperor ordered his attendants to fill the bathtub with rare perfumes.
Akbar asked him, “Birbal do you like the perfumes kept here in my bathtub?”
Birbal replied, “My lord, the perfumes in your bathtub are indeed rare and exotic. But an entire tub full of rarest perfumes cannot retrieve what some droplets have taken away!”
Birbal intended to tell Akbar that a scripted situation could not mend his instinctive reaction. (Akbar’s instinctive attempt of retrieving the perfume drops from the floor).
In business scenarios, we usually get one chance to go forward. Getting that very first chance takes lots of effort, persistence, focus, and whatnot. The real connotation is to watch out for instinctive reactions as they chisel out our character in front of others. What is lost once in these can never be retrieved.
