1992-1993------ A milestone in my career

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.

1987-----Annuser More Horribliser

1987 was even  worse than 1986 in terms of personal tragedies. But then again, there were some good events also----- nature's way of balancing out things.

Daddy had continued to experience some problems with his heart even after the installation of the pacemaker.Since Dec 1986, he had been in and out of hospital.Since he and mom were staying with Rummy and Nagaraj at that time, he was admitted to Chaya Nursing Home, run by Dr.Ramu Nadig.

In Jan 1987, he was once again taken ill and was admitted to hospital. Towards the end of the month, Chubbadi and Sethuram suddenly landed up in our Chennai house.They had received information that Anti Chikkappa had died of a heart attack while he was staying in Om Prakash's house in Staten Island,USA.

Anti was working in Korba ( Chattisgarh) but he had gone to USA to try for a job there since he was planning to emigrate with his family.His wife Padma and children Ravi and Gowri were in Korba at that time.

Chubbadi was informed that Padma, Ravi and Gowri were on their way to Bangalore and had come to Chennai to meet them and take them to Bangalore.
I went with Chubbadi and Sethuram to Central Station.We had no idea which train they were coming in .Just when we had given up all hopes of meeting them, we bumped into Ravi.

Ravi and Padma were not aware that Anti had passed away.They had only been informed that Anti was serious.When we told them the sad news, they broke down.We took them all home and then began a round of hectic trunk calls to Om Prakash and to Srinivas, Padma's brother--- who was living in Texas, as to the arrangements to bring Anti's body back to India.

Please understand that this was 1987 and telephone facilities were primitive, to say the least.Anyway, they all left for Bangalore after making all the arrangements.Daddy was still in hospital and was not informed of Anti's death.

Among all this, we learnt that Sandhya was expecting again. I remember telling daddy that he should now be looking forward to the birth of one more grandchild in the family.

Lambi was rattled by all this and came down from Dehra Dun to look up daddy in Jan.His condition worsened in March 1987 and I again rushed to Bangalore on 18th Mar. It happened to be Sandhya's wedding anniversary but we were maintaining a vigil at Chaya Nursing Home.On 20th Mar, the doctor told me that it was now a matter of days but one couldn't say when.

I returned to Madras on 21st Mar ( it was my birthday).On 22nd Mar morning ( it was a Sunday), I got a call from B S Nagaraj at 4 AM that daddy's condition had worsened and I decided to leave immediately for Bangalore. Just as I was getting ready, I got another call that he had passed away. We then decided that all 4 of us would fly to Bangalore immediately. I spoke to Venu and gave him the news and he and Chikkamma came down immediately to take us to the airport.Venu had always been close to daddy and was affected by daddy's demise.

We reached Bangalore by 8 AM and drove down immediately to BSN's house where daddy's body had been brought.He looked peaceful in death.A doctor was called in to remove the pacemaker and then a priest came for the ceremonies.I was made to don a simple white dhoti and an upper garment and went thru the preliminary rituals.

The good thing about these rituals is that it takes away one's mind from the immediate bereavement. Perhaps that is one intent of these rituals!!

One thing that remains in my memory of that day is that I did not shed any tears.That came later and I shall describe it when I come to it.

All that I felt was genuine sorrow at the premature passing away of a good man ( he was just 64 years old).The best gift that he gave to my mom, Rummy, Sandhya and me was that he had lived to see us grow and live our independent lives.He had provided well for mummy and did not leave us with any debts.

I have seen many families grieving when the head of the family passes away.They are basically grieving for themselves because of either financial issues or because some family commitments still remain unfulfilled.

This was not the case with my dad. I genuinely grieved for him and wished that he was around to enjoy life a little more. I had heard that he danced for joy when India won the Cricket World Cup in 1983 and wished that he was around for a few more similar occasions.

The cremation was at the Srirampura Crematorium and 2 days later, accompanied by my uncles, I went to Paschimavahini in Srirangapatna to immerse the ashes.The other ceremonies were gone through in the following days at another place in Bangalore and ended up with the Vaikuntasamaradhane on the 14th day. Did I ensure that my dad really went to heaven by doing these ceremonies? I don't know--- but at least I was satisfied that I had performed the duties expected of a son .

Sudha and I then went to Dr.Ramu Nadig's house and offered to pay for dad's hospitalization expenses but he refused to accept any payment.This was a measure of the respect in which he held daddy and BSN's family---- a debt we'll never be able to repay.

In April 1987 I got a call from Kanthu with the joyful news that Sandhya was expecting twins. The twins gene was running thru Ravi's family. How happy daddy would have been !!!

In May 1987, Sudha and I  accompanied by the kids went on a trip to Pune and Bombay. We stayed with Veena's parents in Pune and with MSK and Chambi in Bombay.

Swathi and Shruti were born on 6th Jul 1987.There's an interesting story about Sandhya just before she delivered. A couple of days before she went into labour, Sandhya suddenly got the urge to go to MTR on a Sunday evening and eat some snacks.Sunday evenings in MTR is just crazy--- there are queues a mile long and it takes hours just to get a place to sit.As soon as the staff saw her distended figure, they went into overdrive and probably created a record in customer service, just so she out of there quickly and didn't create "labour" problems.

Around this time, I was looking around for a change of job since I knew that I would need to work in a Corporate Head Office if I were to move up in any Organization. The Head Office of Akay Industries was in Bombay and I didn't fancy shifting to Bombay. So I was looking out for a job in a company that was headquartered in Madras or for a job in the Gulf.

I applied for a job in Muscat and even travelled up to Bombay for the interview but nothing came of it. I went again to Bombay for another interview with an industrialist who was keen on setting up a unit in Bangalore but I wasn't satisfied with the terms offered and turned down the offer.

I then got a call from S.Thiagarajan of Durametallic India Ltd whether I would be interested in a job as Sales Manager in Xomox India Ltd. He however told me that the factory was located in Viralimalai near Trichy and I might need to shift to Viralimalai.

I went for the interview.This was a mere formality since I knew the company and the people already. Sudha and I thought long and hard on the decision to shift to Trichy since we  were already well established in Madras, but she finally said yes.

I finally joined Xomox India limited on 5th Oct 1987.All Saturdays were working days ( full day) except the 3rd Saturday of the month.This was in contrast to the 5 day week that I enjoyed when I was working in Akay.

I was part of a pool car system. I had to be ready by 7.45 AM with my breakfast finished and my lunch packed. I would normally return by 6.15 PM. The work was fun and the people were nice so I soon settled in. Very quickly, I was off on visits to Bombay, Calcutta, Baroda and Delhi, apart from my usual trips to Viralimalai. I enjoyed these trips since I had not been to these places before.

I had surrendered my office car given to me by Akay and I had to wait for 6 months before I was eligible for a loan from Xomox to buy a new car.We managed these 6 months by travelling around on the TVS-50 Moped---- all 4 of us on some occasions!!!

Rummy and family and Sandhya and family had planned to spend Christmas and New Year with us.They all landed in Madras on 24th Dec morning and that was the day MGR died. We barely made it back to our house from the station before the entire city shut down. All the sighseeing and shopping programs were cancelled and we settled down to watching programs about MGR on Doordarshan TV.The funeral was held a couple of days later and normalcy returned only after this. By that time it was time for them to return to Bangalore.

My next blog will cover 1988.