This afternoon I tried washing a thermos flask, rummaging from the archived kitchen shelves to use it for an event. As I peeped into the inner of the flask, I noticed few stray stains, clearly a result of ill washed job done by our domestic maid from an earlier usage. I volunteered to clean it thoroughly. The mouth of the flask was reasonably wide to permit my hand to enter the precincts of the smooth inner surface. As is the customary practice in the kitchen sink, to clean hard stuck-on stains on the inner of the vessel, one would use the wire meshed scrubber with soap for a smooth wash. And I did exactly that. I then rinsed it with water and gave it a clean shower. I looked inside triumphantly. Lo and behold! The stains had barely reduced! A large portion of it still remained! I felt a sense of loss. What did I do wrong? Perhaps they were far more adamant stains that my mind could guess, I thought!From a distance our domestic cook (as different from the maid) was watching this episode, whilst rolling rotis and tossing vegetables in a stir fry pan – her culinary multi-tasking forte’!!! As soon as she saw the distraught me, she recognized my innate incapability to do a ‘complex dish washing task’ as simple as cleaning the inside of a normal daily cooking ware. Politely she took the flask, parted with the wire meshed scrubber, held a small soft scotch brite, gave a tender cleansing, rinsed it with water and without even peeping into the inside of the jar just pointed it to me. Lo and behold! What was a hard stain just disappeared!!In her humble lingua she said with reverence and humility, “Saheb, don’t use the hard wire scrubber for adamant stains, use soft ones. They clean evenly. The hard ones don’t clean uniformly!!!!!!My Mother-in-law who was watching the end-to-end episode of this live wire drama, had her last laugh and quipped, “every person knows best what his/her job is!!!Life’s most Profound lessons are learnt from simple rustic people, full of reverence, tolerance, experience and backed by home grown wisdom. And at such times, Corporate Cognitive Abilities need to rest ! She's not in LinkedIn