~ Gopal , My Little Marketeer...~

 His gleaming smile is what makes customer pull to his small shop near a famous temple that we visited just recently. Smilingly he accepts you as a visitor and politely he starts his conversation – he is a good marketer at this fancy age – When asked about as to what I should call him? He quickly replies “Gopal” and then again showers his smile.

Forget about asking for a bottle of cold drink, I got quickly interested in his personal life and with a volley of questions he never expected out of me. He thought over every answer he gave me, the conversation went well and we both ended up becoming friends!

Gopal is not a privileged child and his penury has led him to work with his little sister and mother – all three of them run a makeshift Tea shop – they have named as “Nirmal Tea Stall” – no guesses here, "Nirmal" is the name of his father who just left his mother in silos and just vanished. He has deep regrets about his happening in his life and he seriously wanted his sister to study , but the situation lead the family to struggle for their daily living.

Now that he happily says that his sister ‘Radhika’ has started go to a ‘Small School’ that is nearby – he also tries to read her books sometimes in free time – though it is just not possible every day.

As the conversation progressed, Gopal asked me if I would have anything along with Tea – probably his selling skills were at his best – I could not say a plain no so ordered a pack of biscuits which I though would gain his confidence – he smiled again and gave me a pack of two biscuits – cutely shrewd little businessman – but I honoured his protocol – time had made him what he had become.

Gopal had perfected the art of tea making, be it sugarless tea or with sugar, all sorts of requests are catered with great aplomb – now that his sister ‘Shruti’ also sometimes joins in washing the utensils, both brother and sister are the marketing face of the tea stall.

Though their mother is the spinal cord of the family business, she is a woman of few words and is majorly engrossed in cash matters – after the last sip of tea was over, an unusual question was thrown at me – “Bhaiya, chai kaisi lagi?” ( Sir, how was the tea?) – my little friend has thrown a bomb at me sort of , though quite unknowingly , that he was in-process of being the super salesman of his stall – I quickly reverted and gave him an answer which he readily accepted with a gleam – but not before asking him as to what made him ask this question to me ? or for that matter he asks every customer the same question that he asked me.

The answer was quick in affirmation – “Yes, bhaiya, I feel, that I have done good work when the customer tells me that they liked my Tea!” – now in complex corporate terminology, this is called customer feedback and this certainly leads to ‘Job Satisfaction!” – Gopal was using all the corporate strategies which he had learnt and was learning through a practical class called “Life” – As I said Adieu, he smiled again but again unknowingly threw his last dice of marketing – “Bhaiya, please come again I will treat you with one Cup of Tea for free next time!” – now that was a final penchant for me to record this – now I wait for the next meeting to follow suit…