Sometimes surprises come from unexpected quarters. That day it came from the team of our drivers, eight of them in all. They were all standing in front of us, Mr. Alkunte, the leader was standing in front of them with a bundle of books in his hands. The rest of them behind him, all with a smile on their face and a look of pride in their eyes.
They said they wanted to give a gift of books for our staff library. It was such a pleasant surprise, rather a double surprise for us. We did not know how they thought of it. Firstly, how they thought of giving a gift when there was no such occasion or precedent to follow and how they thought of giving books as a gift.
When Mr. Alkunte was asked the reason behind this gesture, he said, “I never read books before, but Nagesh sir, gave me a book to read. It was a big fat book and I was not sure I would be interested in reading it. But he insisted that as a driver I had a lot of time in between driving trips and hence I should use it for reading. By the time I finished that book I started liking reading and continued reading more and more books. “Who Moved My Cheese” was one of those books and it proved to be a turning point of my life. I learnt two things from the book. I realised that one has to be ready to accept change and one should share with others what one has learnt. Be a leader and show direction to those who are behind you".
Mr. Alkunte did just that. He motivated others from his team, other drivers, to read. The task was not easy. He faced the opposition but finally he was able to convert them from non- readers to readers. And then one day they all thought of donating books to our staff library. The selection of books was amazing. But more amazing was the thought behind the gift, “The organisation has given us so much. We want to show our gratitude. Gift of books is just a token” they said.
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Our team of Drivers
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As shared by Mr. Sanjay Alkunte, Coordinator, Transport, DSS, Pune.
