Dearest Darling Friends,

A certain private school in New Delhi that catered to the high-end families in town, was recently faced with a unique problem.

A number of Class 7 / 8 th standard girls in the age bracket of 12-13 years were beginning to use lipstick. They would sneak out of the class and put it on in the bathroom.

For the school, that was fine. They understood the raging hormones and need to feel they were grown ups.

The unique problem was that after they put on their lipstick, they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints.

Every evening, after school hours, the house keeping lady would remove them, and the next day the girls would put them back.

Multiple appeals to the girls went in vain. Neither threats nor shame nor heartfelt requests made any difference to the girls.

Finally the principal decided that this situation needed a unique approach. She was a wise woman who knew that one should never wrestle with a pig in mud because you can’t win against the pig AND the pigs love it.

One fine morning, she called the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the house keeping lady.  She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every day.

(You can just imagine the yawns from the little princesses).

To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the house keeping lady to show the girls how much effort was required.

The house keeping lady took out a long-handled mop, dipped it in the toilet water, and cleaned the mirror with it.

The young princesses were horrified to know the mirror was being cleaned with toilet water.

Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.

Haha. There are teachers … and then there are educators.

Complicated problems need creative solutions. Tempers, threats, tantrums, accusations, emotional dramas, blame game, shaming, et al, do not work.

Creative problem solving, ALWAYS WORKS.

Power games may not work. Smart thinking always work.

Your thoughts?

With love, prayers and best wishes,