I read "India Unbound" twenty years ago, there are some stories that stick with you and continue to inspire for rest of your life.

I remembered the story of "Tea Kettle & Vicks" by Gurucharan Das -former CEO of P&G India whilst writing about "Elephant Path".

Gurucharan Das returned to India after graduating from Harvard and he got a door to door sales trainee job selling Vicks in rural India during 1960's.

Abridged excerpt from the book below

"I knocked on the door of a Surat home one evening. The woman of the house reluctantly opened the door. I asked her what her family did to treat coughs and colds.

Her eyes lit up and her face became animated. She told me that she had discovered the most wonderful solution. She asked me in and brought back a kettle.

I thought we were going to have tea. However, she explained that she used this particular kettle for treating her family’s colds.

She returned with the kettle full of boiling water. She poured a spoonful of Vicks VapoRub into the kettle and together we inhaled the medicated vapors from the spout. Instead of drinking tea that evening, we inhaled Vicks. When she discovered that I worked for the same company, she was in raptures".

The home made supercharged Vicks inhaler worked for me in my childhood. In India, Elephant paths are better known as "Jugaad".

This story always reminds me not to get too attached to my own way of thinking, listening and being open to other ideas enriches your thoughts, products, services and indeed life.

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