Highway Jottings-13
Karma.
Yes, karma, says the possibly six-feet-something Rishab Laul, a South Carolina University economics graduate, responding to a query: what’s your business mantra?
He avoids eye-to-eye contact. Shy? Maybe. I strain to hear him clearly. Is he mumbling, or does my hearing need extra attention? He’s soft and low pitch, too. His dad, Inder Pal Laul, owner of LTC Logistics, prefers his son to occupy the director seat in the closed-door cubicle and settle down in the corner to the right of Rishab, and I occupy the seat on the other side of the table facing him. A propah interview setting.
I am visiting Laul Senior after seven years at his Ballabhgarh office on the original National Highway 2 (NH2), which links the national capital, Delhi, with the imperial capital, Kolkata. (This NH has been renumbered as NH 19 and NH 44 after the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways renumbered all national highways in 2010, and the old NH 2 number has ceased to exist. Now, the Delhi to Agra stretch is part of NH 44, and the Agra to Kolkata stretch is NH 19).
‘So young and you’re talking of karma!” I ask Rishab.
“Carma with ‘C’,” clarifies the bespectacled Genext fleet-owning transporter.
Carma? It is always Karma for me. Suddenly, the sagely advice of Lord Krishna to the reluctant warrior Arjun in Bhagavad Gita runs in my mind.
Karmanye Vadhikaraste, Ma Phaleshou Kada Chana (You have the right to perform your actions but are not entitled to the fruits of the actions.)
Rubbing my eyes in disbelief, I ask: what does your Carma mean? Some acronym? He responds with a smile.
CARMA — C for Create; A for Align, R for Rollout, M for Manage, and A for Accountability.
Got it. Gyan from some management institute.
Who is Rishab’s Krishna? After his foreign degree, he MBA-ed from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies. I am sure Rishab gained some managerial wisdom there. But in this dynamic business world, he possibly felt his educational odyssey should continue side by side with learning the ropes of his family business of transportation from his dad. Life-long learning, he mutters.
Carma entered his lexicon recently through Rahul Jain, his business coach. He vouchsafes for its effectiveness, and this is working wonders for him. Who am I to doubt his belief? Papa is happy. The business has grown.
Beyond transporting farm tractors for giants such as Mahindra, TAFE, Escorts Kabuka, Sonalika, New Holland and John Deere, LTC is now catering to the booming demand for e-commerce, a new territory for this company. Rishab and his cousin Mayank, another foreign-educated, tech-savvy director, manage the business with Laul Sr watching them from the sidelines, ready to jump if needed.
Before I could recover from the carmic blast, Rishab remembered another gem he learned from his business coach: “Start simple. Begin NOW. Don’t wait until you’ve a perfect plan.” Keep modifying as you proceed. Perfection is Utopian. He reminds me of several undeclared management mantras I learned from my gurus. They recited the same mantra.
