Years back, When I was in-charge of a nationalised bank at Chennai, We used to have a stream of officials and friends of officials trooping into Chennai for the sake of staying in a 5 Star hotel within their official eligibility means! Our Bank had financed a top rated 5 star hotel bang in the city and the unofficial condition reached with the promoters of the Hotel was that whenever the higher ups visited the city, they would be accommodated within their official eligibility means!
Every week, I would get some call from my Head office at Delhi informing about the proposed visit of some Bosses on one pretext or the other. The usual ritual was that I had to go to the Airport at Meenambakkam and stand there with a bouquet of flowers to welcome the so called higher official whose mind set was much below the thinking of an average man!
One of our Directors from the Finance Ministry visited the city twice every month as he was also on Board of yet another Nationalised Bank that had Head quarters at Chennai. The Chairman's secretariat used to ring me up and inform me to book the usual room at the 5 star hotel and also receive him at the airport with a car at his disposal, along with bouquets and other formalities!!
This man, coming to the city twice every month also had his room booked at the Staff Training college of the other Nationalised Bank but he preferred the 5 Star comfort offered by my Bank for which the entire logistics fell on my head every fortnight? Although I or my bank had no role to play in his coming to the city, I was prevailed upon by my head office to arrange support for the Director!
Now, the South Indian Director would walk down the steps where at least a dozen officials representing the 2 banks and also the Ministry of Finance would be standing to greet him(artificially) and put up a smiling face welcoming him. He would look around to ask who has brought-which car? Every one would specify the car that they have fetched to take him to the place of his choice. Obviously, he would spell out his intent of going to the star hotel and ask all others to follow him! Thus, a convoy of at least 5 cars would take this single official to his most preferred destination in the city where he would sign off all others except me as only I knew the Hotel management in my official capacity! I would quietly follow him to his room where he would create a big tantrum if he found there were no cookies or bouquet of flowers with a note to welcome him! Although I found it hard to digest, I had no choice except to keep quiet and undergo the torture? I would be at my heels even during those wee hours trying to organise some cookies or goodies for this Director and telephone the guest relation manager and all others to inform that the Director of the Bank is in their Hotel and everyone should be on their toes!
During Winter times, this man used to bring at least 2 huge suit cases and empty them in front of me. They were all used winter garments or clothes like silk Saree that required dry cleaning. I would telephone the laundry and ask them to send a person to take all the clothes for laundry and deliver the same back within the next 24 hours and this formed a regular duty for me besides my official work!
He would stay for a couple of days and enjoy or extract everything possible from the Hotel leaving me to do all the dirty work of adjusting the bills to fall within his eligibility norms as fixed by the other Nationalised Bank! I never felt good serving these kind of greedy and selfish people. I used to wonder if I would ever get a chance to act like him and enjoy the 5 star comforts?
(Sun Rise from Hotel Pullman, Gurgaon)
Every one gets his turn and time and its my turn now. My son who travels widely invites me to stay with him whenever he is in town. The 5 star comfort and the pampering reminds me of those days when I was forced to be in attendance for my Director in the Bank. The only difference is that I never carry clothes for dry cleaning or dry wash or make tantrums about those missing cookies or flowers in the room!! I feel very happy and elated to see my son rising to this position and making a mark in his career and thank god for realising my dreams that I had decades back! I keep talking about various incidents that happened during my career and advise him things that he must not do?
Every week, I would get some call from my Head office at Delhi informing about the proposed visit of some Bosses on one pretext or the other. The usual ritual was that I had to go to the Airport at Meenambakkam and stand there with a bouquet of flowers to welcome the so called higher official whose mind set was much below the thinking of an average man!
One of our Directors from the Finance Ministry visited the city twice every month as he was also on Board of yet another Nationalised Bank that had Head quarters at Chennai. The Chairman's secretariat used to ring me up and inform me to book the usual room at the 5 star hotel and also receive him at the airport with a car at his disposal, along with bouquets and other formalities!!
This man, coming to the city twice every month also had his room booked at the Staff Training college of the other Nationalised Bank but he preferred the 5 Star comfort offered by my Bank for which the entire logistics fell on my head every fortnight? Although I or my bank had no role to play in his coming to the city, I was prevailed upon by my head office to arrange support for the Director!
Now, the South Indian Director would walk down the steps where at least a dozen officials representing the 2 banks and also the Ministry of Finance would be standing to greet him(artificially) and put up a smiling face welcoming him. He would look around to ask who has brought-which car? Every one would specify the car that they have fetched to take him to the place of his choice. Obviously, he would spell out his intent of going to the star hotel and ask all others to follow him! Thus, a convoy of at least 5 cars would take this single official to his most preferred destination in the city where he would sign off all others except me as only I knew the Hotel management in my official capacity! I would quietly follow him to his room where he would create a big tantrum if he found there were no cookies or bouquet of flowers with a note to welcome him! Although I found it hard to digest, I had no choice except to keep quiet and undergo the torture? I would be at my heels even during those wee hours trying to organise some cookies or goodies for this Director and telephone the guest relation manager and all others to inform that the Director of the Bank is in their Hotel and everyone should be on their toes!
During Winter times, this man used to bring at least 2 huge suit cases and empty them in front of me. They were all used winter garments or clothes like silk Saree that required dry cleaning. I would telephone the laundry and ask them to send a person to take all the clothes for laundry and deliver the same back within the next 24 hours and this formed a regular duty for me besides my official work!
He would stay for a couple of days and enjoy or extract everything possible from the Hotel leaving me to do all the dirty work of adjusting the bills to fall within his eligibility norms as fixed by the other Nationalised Bank! I never felt good serving these kind of greedy and selfish people. I used to wonder if I would ever get a chance to act like him and enjoy the 5 star comforts?
Every one gets his turn and time and its my turn now. My son who travels widely invites me to stay with him whenever he is in town. The 5 star comfort and the pampering reminds me of those days when I was forced to be in attendance for my Director in the Bank. The only difference is that I never carry clothes for dry cleaning or dry wash or make tantrums about those missing cookies or flowers in the room!! I feel very happy and elated to see my son rising to this position and making a mark in his career and thank god for realising my dreams that I had decades back! I keep talking about various incidents that happened during my career and advise him things that he must not do?
Raju,
ReplyDeletePrivate sector was no better those days, though it has changed in the recent years.,
I was with a Tata Group Company during the 80s when almost similar traits were shown by seniors., There was even a instance when a Sr Vice President called me from Bombay next day telling me unashamedly that he had left behind his underwear in his hotel romm and if I could send a peon , pick it up and have it courriered ! I would say, it is more to do with people involved than whether they are in positions of power., Mohan
your dream has come true for good, but what about those guys who still lament like you did those days, has the habits of the so called big bosses changed, shameless guys they cannot dream of such luxuries on their own. hope your message is widely circulated so that it pricks the conscious if at all, of some of those guys who shamelessly bask at the expense of others, and of those officers who stoop to any extent to satisfy the whims of their bosses,besides being of some solace to the few honest guys like you who had no option but to digest what they have been assigned.
ReplyDeleteK.Ahsok Komar