2005 - Oil India Limited

OIL beyond territorial barriers
The calf beaten path
M. A. Niphi, Manager (Personnel), OIL, Duliajan
M. A. NIPHI is an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur. He has
worked in Administration, T&D, Public Relations, Industrial
Relations and Personnel Department in OIL. Presently, he is
involved with the ERP Project `Aarohan'.
Once upon a time, there was a calf. One evening, this calf (like any other
calf) came back home after wandering here and there, left and right through
a thick jungle; even though the distance from its home was just about
a kilometer away from where it lived.
The next morning, a shepherd's dog passed by and saw the calf's hoof
marks and followed the path of the calf through the woods.
Shortly after, the first sheep of a flock followed the path
with all the remaining sheeps following him.
So a path through the woods was made.
Then men began to use this path, cursing its twists and turns as they walked
and walked but doing nothing about it. A century later,
the road became a street .
The street turned into a city's crowded thorough fare with thousands
following the footprints left by a wobbly calf. Three centuries later,
the road became
the main street of a very large city. Buses, lorries, trams and cars followed
the path of a wandering calf.
“ A hundred thousand men were led by one calf near three centuries dead.
They followed still this crooked way and lost one hundred years a day…
… along the calf path of the mind.
And work away from sun to sun, to do what other men have done,
to keep the path that others do, along which all their lives they do."
Walter Foss ( 1895 )
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