Singrauli Diary-1
Travel means comfort movement for me. I prefer shorts, a Tee shirt, sports shoes with socks or a croc with/without socks.
Hence I was unsurprised to meet and greet Signo co-promoter Gagan Chaturvedi and his Fleet Head S D Sharmaji at the gate of my residence (Green Arch, Greater Noida) in their casuals: shorts, Tee-shirt with comfortable footwear. I, too, was in the same gear.
You’re traveling with your business partner on a long trip, and your dress sense is pathetic, chided my better half. She attempted to remove the coffee stain and biscuit crumbs sticking to my black shorts. It was her last attempt to ‘reform’ before my new journey with Gagan in the common domain: truck drivers. It was the usual drama on the eve of every trip.
She does not understand me even after 42 years of marital bonding. I am talking about my dress sense. Comfort is the keyword for me. I was at the receiving end of butts from family and friends that I moved around with such uncivilized sartorial taste (according to them, not to me!), as against a pair of pants and a formal shirt or veshti (mundu).
One’s dress sense is not to be rigid. Horses for courses. Dismiss the thought of myself walking into a corporate office for a meeting in half trousers and a Tee shirt. I have never done it and will not attempt it. Appropriate dressing is a prerequisite for making the right impression. The first impression is the best impression. Right?
Long-haul drivers rebuffed me in the early days of my association with them. They treated me like an untouchable. Reason: I was well-dressed. They have a healthy disrespect for white collar based on their experience with their seniors. It took some time to grasp this reality. What was that I was looking for? Primarily, acceptance of my presence in their midst. Unless this bridge is built, there will be no communication. For this to happen, I decided to adapt to their lifestyle: Eat like them. Sleep like them. Bathe like them. Yes, shit like them. No jokes. I mean it.
This transformation fetched excellent results. They began to see me as one of them, though I am not a truck driver, nor do I have a commercial vehicle license. My shorts or knicker, a Tee shirt, gamcha round my neck, and bathroom chappal gained an entry into their charmed circle. Watching me hiding behind the bushes with an Aquafina bottle filled with water for morning ablutions was the icing on the cake for them. Yeh hamara aadmi! Jo bolta hai, karta bhi hai!
A pure psychological game. That’s when I understood how one’s attire plays a role in winning and influencing friends. Not that I don’t advise them to dress better. One of my decade-long campaigns is Achche Dikne Mein Burra Kya Hai. (What’s Wrong in Looking Good?).
Dress better. Society will respect it. Abandon your shabby look. How far this message crept into their cranium is difficult to assess. But I never gave up.
On a recent visit to the Suriyeli coal mines belonging to the Adani group in northeastern Madhya Pradesh, my colleagues and I halted our vehicle on noticing two empty trucks parked near an open area in the thick of the forest and three drivers sitting on the ground and lunching. We stepped out, helloed them and sat on the carpet of fallen dry leaves of the nameless trees, and chatted for half an hour. We never felt discomfort in such a gesture.
The decision to sit on the ground unhesitatingly and unasked for convinced them of our credentials of driver-friendliness, and they opened up to vent their grievances. Many critical challenges confronting them in executing their job of helping the economy in their way got highlighted. These inputs enabled us to chalk out palliative measures to alleviate their suffering.
Would these drivers have opened up had we stepped out in our ironed pair of pants, creaseless shirts, and shiny shoes? Doubtful.
Appropriate dressing is a key element in winning and influencing friends. Be it a driver or a damsel.
