Time & Tide

I was 20 years old when I got the order to join SBM before 7th Nov at C S Pura Branch. The only other clue was that the place was in Gubbi Taluk, Tumkur District, Karnataka. It was the year 1983 and I had passed out from college only a few months back. I had made a decent use of those months learning accountancy just as a well wisher had suggested since I had not studied the subject in college.  My mother had insisted that my father accompanied me on my first journey outside the safety of home in search of my destiny. It may sound cliched but I felt like a lost puppy. After an adventurous travel with no knowledge of the local language and the geography, we managed to reach our destination well after office hours on the last date for joining. Technically, my candidature had turned void but the manager did not want to lose the opportunity to have another working hand. He asked me to type my own joining letter in dim light at 08 pm and he suggested that my father and I stay in his hou...

  > As I step into the store, I hear someone asking me ‘Hello! How are you doing today?’. Surprised, I answer ‘I am fine, Thank you’. We exchange smiles! > While going on one of my evening walks, the man walking in the opposite direction gesticulates a wish aimed at me as if we have known each other for years. My mind races to strange thoughts like, ‘is he smiling because he finds the brown skin threatening?’. > While crossing the road, cars stop to let me go. When I let them go, they thank me! > The persons at the check out counter at my favourite Trader Joes engages in small talk with me and finds my Chicago Marathon tee a good conversation starter. I know about their lives too as they are curious to know about mine! > I love walking the streets of New York City when I go on my sight seeing jaunts there. No one pesters me to get on to the sightseeing bus or to buy something. Everyone seems to be in a hurry to do their own thing. No greetings on the street unlike in...

  My banking career was all about  targets and results.  Force of habit would be for me to take stock of my life by breaking the total number of years into six decades. 1 to 10 : I have sketchy memory of those years like everyone else. I do remember going for long walks with my father after dinner when I would ask him a lot of questions and he would patiently answer them. I remember the time when my mother was having a difficult time managing my twin siblings and me. I was four years old when they were born. The annual vacation trips to my hometown with my maternal grandparents and paternal grandmother showering all their love and attention is etched in my memory. 10 to    20 : I remember being very proud of being the best student in every class in school until I was in my 8th standard. I continued with the same school that awaited recognition from the CBSE. Without proper faculty, the whole of 9th standard was a washout and by the end of the year most of my cla...

  The roadshows for introduction of a new financial product in the Indian markets was on. As a consultant to a brand new currency exchange, I had the responsibility of making presentations in different parts of the country. I was very happy when the Merchants’ Chamber of Kanpur requested a presentation in their city as I saw this as a great opportunity to interact with market stakeholders in a place where I had no reason to venture into hitherto. The enthusiasm met with some trepidation as my command over Hindi is circumspect. There was no question of going back on my commitment and this was a challenge that I was willing to take. I have always met with constant criticism of my use of the language from my wife who has a very good command over Hindi and me!   I got my presentation ready in English and put my heart and soul into making a fitting translation of the entire text. Call it ego or self respect, I wanted to go through the entire exercise without any help. It was time t...

  In 1996, it was one of the regular business trips to meet my clients in Bangalore while I was the regional incharge of treasury business at a Bank. My travel bookings were with a budget airline that had to close down its business and this experience was a good enough indicator of the airline’s future. The meetings went off extremely well and after a comfortable overnight stay at a hotel, I was to take the return flight at 3 pm. I reached the airport only to realise that the flight has been cancelled. Mobile phones were still rare during those days and was not made available at my level of hierarchy. I had to get back to Chennai in time for some important early morning meetings and the airline could not offer any option. I tried some name-dropping that had no effect at all. There was no hope of getting a comfortable berth in the overnight train. I had to do something and I called up the CEO of the airline, whom I had a professional acquaintance with, from the pay phone at the airp...

I had one of the most unique experiences in all my years of travelling when I used KuWait Airways for my trip to USA this 30 July 2023.  Slated to be the ‘world’s most improved airline of 2023’, KuWait airline promised a pleasant travel while I made the booking from Mumbai- JFK- Mumbai, or that is what I assumed from the itinerary. Everything looked good until the airline informed a 3 hour delay in departure from Mumbai. The messaging was done two days in advance and all that meant was a reduced waiting time at KuWait airport. It sounded welcome as the airline confirmed through interactive messaging that the 50 minute break is enough time to change aircrafts. We did not want to leave anything to chance and reached the airport well before the counters opened. Surprise #1 came in the form of an announcement of delay by another 90 minutes which meant that the connecting flight to JFK will fly away before we land at the layover airport. It looked like there were many passengers traveli...