12^th July

The untimely and gruesome death of my host during my rural stint in Etah, as he was kidnapped and murdered because his family could not pay the ransom, shocked me beyond belief. The hazy picture of the lean middle aged man sprawling on the sugarcane fields as a corpse with mouth open to the blue sky and the mixed aroma of fresh ground nuts and his sweat that I felt in my nostrils when he hugged me on the last day of my rural stint come in my dreams even now to haunt me.

The Bheeshma Narayan Singh who demonstrated unconditional-except–his four daughters-shall-not-come-in front of me- affection

I stumbled upon a cash fraud in my audit at Shaving Products of India, immediately followed by Lipton Branch Audit where again a fraud perpetrated on the payments to transporters came to light. Back in Ho, my name got tossed out amongst many and I returned to a near-tumultuous welcome that was really heady in concoction in my mind.

But the sopoforic myth was broken by such a profound lecture on the difference between sensational findings and control system weakness in an audit by none other than Prince Asirvatham

As the thinly-clad lady gushes in and out of the waterfall with unbridled enthusiasm flaunting the Liril soap, its creation was a nerve-racking stressful week of countless cups of coffee, emerging cigarette smoke and thunderous noise of arguments and counter arguments that I had the opportunity to witness thanks to my admission in that discussion by Shunu Sen

Two weeks of mind-blowing number crunching upon green sheets and feeble light emitting calculator to attack the then famous or in-famous PSR, that always remained with the subject-matter expert of those days M r Parameswaran. My  misfortune that he went on two weeks leave and I got posted to carry out the same. I “completed” the reconciliation with a difference of 4.5 MTs (!!)

The nuances of PSR was taught to me in a matter of two hours prior to my moving to another stint but only after making me the butt of the joke of “my reconciliation with a difference of 4.5 tons” by the unforgettable second floor combo Ravi & Sundaram

Ramesh and I were chosen to prepare the background data, of course countless green sheets and this time better light emitting calculators during the Foods and AFS business sales to Lipton. As the assignment was to be kept under wraps, we were asked to work from 8 in the night to 5 in the morning. There were many nights when after 10 we were treated with a flask full of steaming tea and cookies by the then Financial controller Keki Dadiseth..

I was treated roughly with an irritable face and harsh comments for nearly four months until I comprehended the complex procedures of some thing and after the testing period, with a warm handshake and a smiling face, I was told that he had to feign hostility to speed up my learning – the ever nice Kashi….

In a 360-degree environment of hostility and not-so-pleasant times, running the Etah factory with such elan and grooming the Management Trainees who would be haunting the place almost 12 months in the year was the uncanny professional R S Ramanathan

My first away-from-Bombay posting was Rajpura where Stepan Chemicals was taken on lease to manufacture ISIS, the then Russian version of Surf. As a rookie Madrasi boy with minus Zero knowledge of Hindi and clueless about the Punjabi culture, I was all at sea struggling to comprehend the challenges. Came as a whiff of fresh air, the Chemical engineer par excellence, who by his calm composed sharp and high intellect, silently taught me to work in a hostile atmosphere. We meet even now frequently in Madras IIT canteen over a Thali meal and discuss all topics from J K Galbraith to Transcendental meditation... M S Srinivasan

A competent Manager will never worry about anything other than issues on hand was a lesson taught in unspoken words and attitude by the upright Sunil Mehtha

Shining bald head and mirror-like polished black shoe, short squat man with two sizes ahead shirt and trouser who used to walk up all the five floors of the Lever house in road number 3 and a few of whose recommended stocks have been enhancing my wealth status till date, dear Cali Dharuwalla..

What of these gentlemen?

It was this day the 12^th July 43 years ago, clad in Snuff-coloured trouser and chocolate brown shirt with bewildering look in eyes that I entered the Lever House.

Guru Poornima is only on the 21^st of this month!

Yes I know

I never cease to think of them on this day every year and everyday for it is their shoulders that have lifted me in corporate ladder till retirement.

Salutes Gentlemen!