After his retirement from the services to the King of England, he wrote a series of time-tested frame-stories as ‘The Canterbury Tales’ or briefly ‘Tales’. A unique one is ‘The Nun’s Priest’s Tale’, in which he structured a story of peasants and a fox in anthropomorphic phrases. Every Indian politician today should be able to delve into the poem’s inner meaning and act accordingly in their public life.

The anthropomorphic language is a model of communication imagined by humans for the non-human animated world – birds, animals, reptiles, insects, and the vegetational world, even including deserts, coasts, air, water, hills, mountains etc.

The ‘The Nun’s Priest’s Tale’ is about a self-made trap in which the main character, a handsome large well-bred Cock, Chauntecleer, falls into. He flaunts his physical beauty among his seven wives. The most brilliant one of them, Pertelote, is a discreet agile observer who would check his steps and compromise his complacence.

Chauntecleer is a proud master-cock of strong voice, can sing well in full-throated voice to alert the world and indeed is a constant draw among his amorous wives. Pertelote, who cleverly keeps her other six competitors at a distance from Chauntecleer’s company, exudes the idea of quality mentoring of her proud complacent husband, but is often ignored.

Natural of male chauvinistic pride, Chauntecleer yields to pampering of a guileful fox, long in wait outside the Nun’s fences, with mouth watered for his muscular flesh. He steps closer to the open end of the fences, sings to please the fox, shuts eyes to bring out full-throated easy sounds, and fails to watch the fox’s move. In one smart thrust, the fox catches Chauntecleer by throat, hurls him on its back and runs for a safe place for the prized lunch.

Still alive on the fox’s back, Chauntecleer muses a ploy. He pampers the fox’s clever agility and brilliant choice of words. He also asked the fox to sing its glorious feat, to which now pampered fox yields too. The moment the fox opens its mouth, up flies Chauntecleer to his freedom on a branch of a tree, too high for the fox to reach by follow-throughs.

The lessons in this ‘Tale’ are a few :

First, the Quality thought comes by Quality processes of musings. At this both the fox and the Cock excelled. Both being at pains to meet the goal, mused well to articulate phrases to successfully reach the goal.

Second, it is no good to ignore the mentor. S/he means good business, beneficial to all, a fantastic sense of Quality that is a matter of habit, as is said by Aristotle.

Third, vaunt yourself only when it would not affect your life or work, or vaunt to perish.

If you are a servant of people, your first duty is to see that people are not cheated by rich manufacturers of foods and medicines, or by any muscle or intellectual power who can cause physical or social damages.

In India, people are taken for granted. They are important only at every fifth year, when it is election time. Until that year comes, the politicians can play just any trick top befool people. They can issue licences to manufacture medicines without a transparent production address. They market the products in any attractive package giving spurious contents and market. If marketing is transparent, then production centre is kept away from people’s notice, if production centre is well-identifiable marketing is often dicey.

There are many fake companies who are allowed to function under the corporate laws in India, but are seldom put under surveillance, thanks to their political connections. Is it an example of quality governance in health sector? It is only in India medicines are allowed to be sold through TVs, radios or social media advertisements. Why do these are missed by the cacophonous politicians? People want to know but cannot dare to ask them, obviously, these manufacturers are highly connected and very rich and influential in the Indian society.

Under quality governance pressures, these manufacturers would have been transparent in their functioning. If top industrial leaders like Mukesh Ambani can declare their manufacturing or original offices, why a medicine manufacturing company cannot declare the address of its research laboratory, or in absence of that, its workshop for assimilating drugs?

There are doctors who are willing to be purchased. Merrily they would prescribe medicines without scrutinizing the manufacturers’ and their products’ credibility. Evidently, such companies get primacy in the country only due to the political aspirants’ priorities, because such companies are willing to buy the politicians and powers in the bureaucracy.

Politicians who busy themselves in cacophony throughout their tenure should learn from Chaucer’s Tale when to open mouth and when to go after such shady companies, which treat millions’ health and day to day life carelessly.

Corruption has led to a tertiary economy in India today in the industry of drinking water bottles. Water is filled in used bottles, or by common water in sealed bottles. The plastic seals easily come out without efforts, even as claims mention quality packaging at some bottling plant. The target clients in this case are the daily wagers who cannot afford to buy standard bottled water from a standard shop. Politicians never learn in India. The business leaders in the health sector make money by compromising with the quality of drugs affecting the lives of the millions. (IPA Service)