A nice lady from a long time ago.

When I was a fresh MBA finding my feet in the Corporate world, many have contributed to my development as a professional and a person.

I still remember a visit by our very likeable General Manager, V.K.Singh of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation. Vikky was a true gentleman and hailed from Punjab. All of us, both sales and operations staff, were having dinner at the nice Annalakshmi hotel in Coimbatore (more about this hotel- a unique concept in another blog). Me and our Operations officer Raghumani were close friends and we both hailed from Kerala. During the dinner, I cracked a joke it Malayalam to Raghu, who had a hearty laugh. Vikkys wife sitting near us gently chided me. She was a very polite and well groomed lady who had a genuine affection for us younger staff. She told me quietly, "Rajan, it is not fair to speak in a language that others dont know, when you are in a group having people from differenct cultures. You might be talking about something else, but those who dont know the language might take offence that you are making fun of them". The manner in which she told me this had a profound influence on me. I have been very careful after that, though of late I noticed that I am falling back into that trap. This is to remind me that I need a course correction.


She was also the first person who pointed out to me that I had the ability to handle totally different issues simultaneously - multi tasking you might call. It was the same dinner. I was talking animatedly ( I always do, dont I?) to Raghu. There was soft music, Mandolin by U Srinivas, on the background. I was apparently oblivious to the music. Vikky's wife called out to me and said. "Son. Do you know that you are enjoying the music subconsciously while engaged in an animated discussion with Raghu?. Because I hear you appreciate the music by saying 'aha' every other minute". I built up on this and have since made a career out of this strength of multi-tasking.


Certain people you remember fondly, even a couple of decades after you have last seen them