Sumathi Sataka - Its relevance for modern living (5)

Today I am discussing a poem is evident in modern management practice. The words may be offensive to some people but one needs to look at the actual meaning before deciding further

“Alluni Manchitanambu
Gollani Sahityavidya, Komali Nijamun
Bolluna danchina biyyamu
Tellani Kakulu levu mahilo Sumathi”


This can be translated as
“There is nothing on Earth like
A good son-in-law
a Shepherd's literary proficiency, A lady speaking truth
Rice milled out of already processed husk
White crows”


This looks a little bit weird at first. The inner meaning of the above lines is do not believe in outlier events but concentrate on the general outcomes. Let us look at the poem


It is rare to find a son-in-law who does not expect anything from their in-laws. A son-in-law is from another family to whom a girl will be married to. In general they will be looking for some benefit / favour in the form of gifts, financial assistance etc., from in-laws. The second one is the literary proficiency of an illiterate Shepard. This does not point out to any particular caste or creed. The meaning is it is very difficult to find highly literary works from an illiterate person. It is in common parlance that women generally are prone to either lying or twist the truth to suit their purpose. This also should not be taken as an offence. There are women who are truthful and speak truth. However such people form only an outlier percentage in general.
The third line talks about milling rice out of already processed husk. It is very difficult to find any rice grains as already the rice is extracted. If one tries to further mill such husk again one may or may not find any further grains. Similarly the fourth line talks about finding white coloured crows. It is rare to find a white coloured crow in a flock. If one finds a flock of white crows then it will be rare to find a black crow in such a flock.

The central meaning of the poem is when working with established truth / event outcomes, ignore the outliers which only account for a negligible percentage. This is used in the Business Process Management / Process Re-engineering activities. There while re-designing a process or setting up a process control one aims to achieve the maximum without accounting for the outliers.  

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