I took over the Sales Area of Coimbatore South in 1989, as a 25 year old in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. The Sales Area was handled by Officers close to retirement for a long time and was reasonably neglected. In a couple of years, I earned the reputation for being innovative, tough and a no nonsense go getter who took lot of risks.
Being a MBA Graduate, a rarity those days, I decided to clean up the mess and started a crusade against Adulteration and poor Service. This made me lots of enemies. At the same time, I made it a point to paint, clean up all my Retail Outlets. We had enough Budget for sprucing up the Outlets.
We also had Consumer Outlets which is dedicated only to a particular consumer, either a Government Agency or an Industrial Customer or a Road Transport Undertaking. In most of these places, our facility comprising of an Underground Tank and a Dispensing Unit is inside the Customers premises, and not visible to the public.
There was once exception in my area. It was a tiny village in the Western Ghats, and the facility was for the Tamil Nadu PWD officials who were there to maintain the Dam, but it was on the main road, as would any normal petrol pump. They consume only 4000 litres every year, but we maintained the facility for the sake of good relationship with the Government. It didn't make economical sense for us to have it. And other than the PWD guys and their Contractors, no one ever visited this location
As Sales Officers we were given budget for repair and maintenance. I had a budget for Consumer Outlets. One year I had a bit of surplus, and remembered this Facility and I sent my Contractor to this hilly terrain to paint the sign board, dispensing unit and the building. He did so promptly, and was happy to go there as the Government officials treated them royally, including some choice meat.
He came back happy, collected his payment and we all forgot about it. He told me that the Sign Board and Dispensing unit had rusted, and the whole place looked forlorn before they painted. It appears that none from HPCL visited this place for years and no one even knew such a facility existed or how it looked like, least of all my Regional Office guys in Cochin.
About 2 months later, my entire Regional Office and Terminal Guys from Cochin planned a weekend trip to this place. Normally whenever they travel the local Petrol Pump owner will be on standby to assist them. But in this case they booked themselves in the PWD guest house, which was the only available place to stay.
They started from Cochin in the evening, and as is the normal practice started drinking heavily. They landed at the destination close to midnight fully drunk. It was very cold outside in this hilly hamlet. Exhausted they dropped off to sleep, but my Manager and couple of my Sales Officer colleagues from Kerala (I didn't join them), got up by 4 am, and decided to clear their head by taking a stroll and in search of a tea shop.
They were still groggy from the previous evenings orgy, and were bemoaning the absence of a HP Petrol Station in the area, as then the dealer would have ensured they get tea and food on time. It was misty, hazy and bitterly cold outside.
As they were grumbling, one of the Sales Officers cried out 'Sir, there is a HP Pump here!'.
The Manager who was taking a leak, said ' Are you crazy? This is my area and I know there is no Petrol Station here. You must be dreaming'.
'Then what is this? my Colleague asked.
As the Manager turned, his jaws dropped. There it stood in front of him, partially visible through the mist, a freshly painted HP Sign Board, a Dispensing Unit and a painted Office Room. He asked his colleagues to pinch him to ensure what he was seeing was not an apparition. Still disbelieving, they inspected the facility which was locked off course. Manager's initial reaction was "I know Rajan takes risks, but even he wont dare to open a Retail outlet without permissions!" He couldn't understand what was going on and how there was a HP facility in this god forsaken place, which as the Manager in charge he was not aware of.
He went around and asked the local tea shop guy who said "It was there since the last 25 years?"
Being in an era when mobile telephones didnt exist, Manager had to wait till 9 am to find a Telephone Booth and call me to seek a clarification.
He was relieved only when I reminded him of the Consumer Facility for PWD. He laughed for a full minute over telephone and told me later that all of them took a while to get over seeing 'what they thought was a ghost' in the early hours.
This story was later retold in Sales Review Meetings to highlight how a Sales Officer took the pains to keep All his Outlets well painted and maintained.
We had moved on in life. I quit HPCL a couple of years after that and moved to Gulf.. He retired from HPCL. But recently when I met him, he still remembered this incident, and shared with me his and his colleagues utter shock on seeing a well painted HP outlet, partially visible through the mist, at 4 am in a quiet uninhabited place all those years ago.
