Nip it in the Bud

Last week, my young cousin sister was getting ready to make chapattis for all of us. It was first time she was making chapattis. I was to supervise her. The task of making chapattis involves making dough out of wheat-flour, cutting it into small pieces, roll each piece into a flat pie-shape, and then bake it on the stove.

As she started making the dough, I stood by her side & watched her silently. After making the dough, she asked me whether it was rightly made. Unfortunately, it was not. The dough she made was quite hard. Even as I noticed the flaw, I told her to go ahead with rolling the chapattis. I thought that I should inform her of the mistake only after she finishes the chapattis.

The hard dough made it difficult to roll chapattis. It took almost double the time to roll out the required number. The shape also was not round but uneven. As the chapattis were put on the oven, they were getting stuck on the pan, & some even got burnt, unfit to eat. Finally I myself had to take out some more flour, make dough, & cook chapattis. The lunch was served one & a half hour late. All because of me as I did not correct my sister during the initial stage.

When we are asked to supervise somebody’s work, we should not let the person to carry on with flaws in the basic plan, thinking that the concerned person will learn from his mistake when he gets a final product, full of flaws. Then there is absolutely no need for our supervision.

As a guide / manager / supervisor, one’s job is to nip the flaw in the bud itself. Otherwise, the blame may as well come to us for not being attentive to our job…..