Copyright@shravancharitymission
By Kamlesh Tripathi
By Kamlesh Tripathi
CORPORATE CAUSERIE
I was once travelling
with a senior colleague of mine. We were on long and arduous tour to launch and
promote one of our new products, having a rural lilt. Having been out, already for
about twenty days, homesickness was quite evident on our faces, and a deeper
look even revealed we were famished.
This senior colleague
of mine had a sinister sense of humour that often hyperlinked you to a jolly laughter
at hindsight. He was a voracious reader, but revealingly, of management books
which he preferred to, expeditiously lay his eyes on, much before the company
czars did. To drum perhaps ... ‘Ya-ya, I too, am there.’
Amid the pile-up of fatigue, and on a
sweltering Sunday we were roughing it out, from one meeting to the other,
talking vivaciously about our product is when the day finally merged into a
lazy evening.
We finally returned
to the hotel. Where, we were sharing a room. And on our way back we had picked
up some chilled ale, as hotel bar was indeed, expensive.
The plan of action
now was to have a quick shower, even when the tap water was boiling hot, owing
to the severe heat of summers, so as to catch the beer within drinkable temperatures.
As a senior
colleague he barged in first, only to come out as a rebound, since the water
was hot, where even bare minimum was too much, is when I followed suit. In the
loo, I noticed he was having severe hair-fall. He was a Bengali gentleman.
And, after I too,
was through, we finally decided to uncork the bottle. The beer was still
drinkable. We gulped down the first sip followed by a munch is when I asked,
“Dada you’re losing a lot of hair. I could
notice in the toilet.’
Dada had another gulp followed by his favourite
munch—peanuts and agonisingly said.
“Arrey baba, mein toh
chahaton hun ki sab bal gir jaye per mein General Manager ban jaun.’
Those days our General Manager and Head of Marketing was a
bald gentleman.
This causerie is a tribute to my senior colleague Debashish
Gangully who died of cancer in the US some time back. The General Manager and
Head of Marketing then, was Mr. M. M.Bhavnani, about whom I don’t know where he is.
And, in life when you look back you’ll find, so much has
happened, that is so captivating and worth remembering, but unfortunately, we don’t
have the time for it.
***
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