Thank You Zindagi

When you are challenged with the prospect of facing ten farewell meets, you will, surely, be at a loss for words. No matter how hard you try and bring in freshness, there will always be a storyline which is common and you may add or subtract an anecdote or two from one speech to another. But in the course of mentally scripting the speeches, you are bound to come across some lines that convey the essence of what you wish to say as you shuffle through reams of paper.  Surprisingly the few key lines I wish to share are written by the same man……Harivansh Rai Bachchan.

मन का हो तो अच्छा, ना हो तो और भी अच्छा 

Amitabh said that this was one of the first things his father taught him, and he could never understand that. When he asked about it, his father replied, “If things are not happening according to your wish, they are happening according to the wishes of some divine force. And that divine force will never think ill about you. So, you have to respect that as being better.”

When I look back at my career graph, I cannot but admit that the quote embodies the story of my life to a great extent.  When in college and university, all I dreamt was football. My whole world revolved around this ninety-minute game and I dreamt of my destiny as playing in some good clubs in India which would also get me some sort of employment. My father knew the fate of football and footballers in our country and in one stroke shattered my dreams and asked me to look at an alternate which he himself proposed as trying for the Civil Services. Quite a jump you may say from IFS of Indian Football Service to Indian Foreign Service!

While preparing for the civil services exam, I gave a couple of other competitive exams and qualified for an officer’s role in a government insurance company. So now having got a job which was, in those days, no less paying than the civil services and then quickly finding a girl in the same company who soon became my wife, I stay put for the remaining part of my working life in the insurance industry despite two good attempts which took me to the interview stages of the premier service in the country. You might term it as a leap from Indian Administrative Service to Assistant Administrative Officer, with something still being in common.

In short, first came the sad demise of my football dreams and then getting stung by the snake twice while on the square of ninety-nine in civil services, the other choice meant that the divine force had something better in store for me. Today, as I look back at the thirty-six years in the insurance world, across geographies, organizations and roles played, I am convinced about what Senior Bachchan said, मन का ना हो तो और भी अच्छा !

Having joined the General Insurance company, I was sent for my training to Narendrapur, West Bengal for six months where, due to my frequent misdemeanours , I soon came to be known as the Principal’s Blue Eyed Boy. Every time there was an incident, I found myself being hauled up for being either the sole or co-conspirator. So while most other trainees got their final postings in their hometowns or in the near vicinity, I was given a punishment posting fifteen hundred kilometres away from Delhi in Kolkata under a boss whose reputation of being tough and taking sadistic pleasure in humiliating people in public was known to one and all. He was the Head of the Marine Department, a line of business on which I had not paid much attention to during the days of training.

Once again, I faced a situation where nothing was happening according to my wish. But then as a favourite child of the divine force, all that was happening to me turned adversity to my advantage. Firstly, being a Bengali, Kolkata was where all my relatives lived and I was well taken care of. Secondly, working in the Head Office of the company under the most difficult man made me take interest in the subject and soon Marine and I became inseparable and synonymous, if I may be permitted some self-indulgence. Finally, having seen how terrorizing, demoralizing and humiliating it was to work under a difficult boss, I promised myself that if I ever got a chance to be a leader, I would always take care of my people, treat them with love, compassion and kindness. Today, as I look back, I am happy and I do not regret having acted the way I did. While someone once accused me of being a grandfather to my teams whose grandchildren could never do any wrong, I can now say, with a lot of pride and conviction, that the love and respect you give to your juniors and other people you work with come back to you in double measure. How else can you explain someone getting ten farewells at the end of his career? All this is a testimony to the love the people who have worked with me directly or indirectly and the sweetest one, of course, was when the service staff who do the housekeeping and security came to give me flowers and a big box of chocolates with a card pasted atop the packet. How else can you explain the wife of a colleague penning a beautiful poem for you. How else to comprehend a teary eyed lady colleague breaking down thrice while trying to speak at a farewell... I am now even more convinced that, मन का ना हो तो और भी अच्छा !

The sweetest gift and more

जीवन है तो संघर्ष है

It seems during his trying days, Amitabh used to spend some time in his father’s company and during one of the conversations he said, 'बाबूजी, जीवन में बड़ा संघर्ष है। मुश्किलें एक के बाद एक आती ही जाती है। रुकने का नाम नहीं लेती।‘(There is too much struggle in life. Troubles keep pouring one after another and don’t seem to stop). Harivansh Rai calmly said, 'बेटा, जीवन है तो संघर्ष है, जब तक जीवन है तब तक संघर्ष है, और रहेगा। (Son, as long as there is life, there will be struggle and shall always remain).

Senior Bachchan was speaking for me and surely for many of my breed. For the entire working life, I worked with Passion. Woke up before sunrise and reached office almost an hour before anyone else. Worked Hard for long hours with my longest break being of five days when my daughter got married. And also worked with Discipline… in short worked with a PHD. But all this does not necessarily ensure success. Yes, the effort and intent were always good and sincere but many a times the set goals were missed. So if in conventional terms success in a career is to be measured by the number of promotions, I will be remembered as someone who also ran. However, if someone were to measure success in terms of goodwill, love, respect and the adulation that I got, I will say that my cup runneth over……I can sleep well at night that I never put a spoke in someone’s career growth; I can live happily with the wealth of all the love that people gave me over the years. Those are my annuities and fixed deposits for my retired life.

But I am under no illusion that in my new innings of life, I can take a breather and relax, I should remember, that as long as there is life, there will be struggle. जब तक जीवन है तब तक संघर्ष है, और रहेगा।

The way my team saw me :)

The third quote of Harivansh ji is something I have tried to follow but, in some instances, people had other plans. All my working life, I have avoided limelight and was happy to be in the sidelines working. "‘दुआएँ मिल जाये सब की, बस यही काफी है, ‘दवाएँ तो कीमत अदा करने पर मिल ही जाती हैं ,’ मशहूर होने का शौक़ नहीं मुझे ; आप मुझे पहचानते हैं बस इतना काफ़ी है”(I do not crave to be famous, getting the blessings and good wishes is what I want; as long as people can recognise me, that is enough for me). As I look back, one of my single most important achievement was publishing twenty-five volumes of a marine newsletter, Marcopolo, between 1995-1999 whilst at National Insurance, Delhi. I had an able lady to assist me in this venture and in the first twenty-one volumes we never printed our names anywhere. It was only in one of last issues that we were compelled to disclose our names at the insistence of a good boss who supported us in this project when there were no computers to help and we did our drafts first in pen, then had them typed and, finally, the printer got into the act. After almost 25 years, an old friend sends me the full spiral bound set of the Marcopolo from Chennai as a farewell gift. What more can I ask for!

The disclosure

I would, however, share two related instances where despite my avoidance of much publicity, my team members did go overboard. In 2017, when I bid adieu to Tata AIG, a group of enthusiastic colleagues got together and presented my wife and daughter with a personalized letter- cum-card with a SFC stamp. Needless to say who the S was for this fan club which, as they jokingly put it, had a followership a shade less than Rajni Sir, The Thalaivaa. Fast forward, 2024, a week after my retirement, a group of people organized an offsite meet where the grand finale was to shoot an episode of five cars moving in a convoy with my wife and me being driven in the middle car. As the cars stopped, someone opened the back seat door and I had to step out in style like Rajni. It was fun and touching even though bordering on embarrassment.

The Club of 2017

The Spirit of 2023

Thank you HRB Sir for the life lessons. If someone, by mistake, were to ask me for my secret sauce, I would say, just be a good human being and constantly listen to your voice of conscience and act accordingly.

SS