1992 marked a milestone in my career.
I had all along been involved in Sales & Marketing and most of my travel was to visit customers, even though I did make the occasional visit to my factory in Viralimalai.
In April 1992, at the start of the new financial year, I was called in by my boss and told that I would now have to handle Operations in the Trichy factory.I asked whether this would mean that the family has to shift to Trichy.
My boss said that was not necessary. I could travel to Trichy every week and be back in Chennai on the weekends.So that became my routine for the next year.
I would leave Chennai every Sunday night to Trichy by Rockfort Express and return on a Friday night back to Chennai. I still had to go to my Karapakkam Office every Saturday.
In Trichy, I stayed at Hotel Sangam and would travel the 25km route to Viralimalai every day.I entered into this job with gusto.I found that my customer contacts was helping me take decisions faster and just talking to them helped me get many clearances.
One of our prominent customers was in Bombay and we were required to speak to them frequently over long distance.Since I also had the responsibility of cutting down on operational expenses and since I had met the telephone operator of this customer during my frequent visits to Bombay, I would ring her up and then ask her to call me back.
Around this time, there was some simmering issue over wages with the workmen, culminating in the workmen stopping work and not attending the factory.I helped set up a war council and we carried on work with just the officers and staff.We even called up our people from the Branch Offices and there was a spirit of camarederie that one often encounters in periods of difficulty.The work stoppage went on for 40 days after which normalcy was resumed.
In spite of this, we grew our business by around 30%.
The travel and work put together was gruelling.There were days when I would wake up in the middle of the night while travelling and I didn't know whether I was going to Trichy or coming from there.
In August 1992, I was in the factory one day when I suddenly felt extremely uneasy. I straightaway decided to go to a hospital in Trichy.The doctors did some tests and told me that I had very high blood pressure. I was advised rest for a full day. Next day, I returned to Chennai and underwent some more tests.
Since then, I've been on medication for hypertension. I was, of course, a bit shocked. I thought I had an easy-going nature and couldn't imagine that I was hypertensive.
Anyway, the diagnosis was made and since then I've been religiously popping my pills everyday.
In spite of this hectic schedule, I still found time to take part in a Kannada play "Siri Sampige" staged by Kannada Balaga.Sudha was the Queen Mother and had a major role. The director of the play was H C Srinivas and the leading lady was Veena, son of M.N.Gopal ( a senior Kannada Balaga member--- I think he was the President at that time).
The rehearsals would take place on the terrace of our flat or in Karnataka Sangha, T'Nagar.Srinivas would then escort Veena home. A romance blossomed while he was teaching her the nuances of dialogue delivery and voice modulation and they remain happily married to this day.
The financial year ended in March 1993 and then my stint as an Operations Manager ended.It was back to Chennai again but I didn't know what my future role would be.
Let's wait for the next blog to see what that was.
I had all along been involved in Sales & Marketing and most of my travel was to visit customers, even though I did make the occasional visit to my factory in Viralimalai.
In April 1992, at the start of the new financial year, I was called in by my boss and told that I would now have to handle Operations in the Trichy factory.I asked whether this would mean that the family has to shift to Trichy.
My boss said that was not necessary. I could travel to Trichy every week and be back in Chennai on the weekends.So that became my routine for the next year.
I would leave Chennai every Sunday night to Trichy by Rockfort Express and return on a Friday night back to Chennai. I still had to go to my Karapakkam Office every Saturday.
In Trichy, I stayed at Hotel Sangam and would travel the 25km route to Viralimalai every day.I entered into this job with gusto.I found that my customer contacts was helping me take decisions faster and just talking to them helped me get many clearances.
One of our prominent customers was in Bombay and we were required to speak to them frequently over long distance.Since I also had the responsibility of cutting down on operational expenses and since I had met the telephone operator of this customer during my frequent visits to Bombay, I would ring her up and then ask her to call me back.
Around this time, there was some simmering issue over wages with the workmen, culminating in the workmen stopping work and not attending the factory.I helped set up a war council and we carried on work with just the officers and staff.We even called up our people from the Branch Offices and there was a spirit of camarederie that one often encounters in periods of difficulty.The work stoppage went on for 40 days after which normalcy was resumed.
In spite of this, we grew our business by around 30%.
The travel and work put together was gruelling.There were days when I would wake up in the middle of the night while travelling and I didn't know whether I was going to Trichy or coming from there.
In August 1992, I was in the factory one day when I suddenly felt extremely uneasy. I straightaway decided to go to a hospital in Trichy.The doctors did some tests and told me that I had very high blood pressure. I was advised rest for a full day. Next day, I returned to Chennai and underwent some more tests.
Since then, I've been on medication for hypertension. I was, of course, a bit shocked. I thought I had an easy-going nature and couldn't imagine that I was hypertensive.
Anyway, the diagnosis was made and since then I've been religiously popping my pills everyday.
In spite of this hectic schedule, I still found time to take part in a Kannada play "Siri Sampige" staged by Kannada Balaga.Sudha was the Queen Mother and had a major role. The director of the play was H C Srinivas and the leading lady was Veena, son of M.N.Gopal ( a senior Kannada Balaga member--- I think he was the President at that time).
The rehearsals would take place on the terrace of our flat or in Karnataka Sangha, T'Nagar.Srinivas would then escort Veena home. A romance blossomed while he was teaching her the nuances of dialogue delivery and voice modulation and they remain happily married to this day.
The financial year ended in March 1993 and then my stint as an Operations Manager ended.It was back to Chennai again but I didn't know what my future role would be.
Let's wait for the next blog to see what that was.
