For a large portion of her career, renowned Indian author and journalist Sucheta Dalal has covered business and economic news. She is renowned for her direct style of journalism and frequently draws attention to the difficulties that citizens encounter when navigating government red tape.

She included a story in one of her pieces that illustrates how even the most carefully thought-out plans can be derailed by small setbacks. Thousands of people navigate a complicated web of meetings and tasks every day in a busy city. Sucheta compared these disturbances to small ripples in a large lake in this context. Similar to how a tiny stone dropped into water causes ripples that spread but don't significantly change the lake's overall flow, sporadic missed meetings brought on by unforeseen government communications are like tiny hiccups in a well-oiled machine.

Dalal's observation emphasizes how difficult it can be to navigate complex governmental structures. Although these delays can be annoying and inconvenient for individuals, she notes that they are comparatively rare in the overall context. Similar to a car engine that continues to run smoothly in spite of sporadic misfires, it has little effect on the vehicle's overall dependability or performance.

Dalal wants to make clear through this analogy that although these kinds of events can lead to short-term disruptions, they do not define the efficacy and efficiency of the system as a whole. Her viewpoint urges readers to view these small setbacks as infrequent disruptions rather than structural flaws.