BLURRED VISION: GRATITUDE - Tribute to those who helped me in my career n life

Chapter 5

Ramdas Iyer

Madan Kamra

Narendra Dhawan

Santosh Wadhwani

Now that I had a new job in hand, I returned to Poona. I submitted my resignation at the Record Office. I tried to secure Testimonials from the Seniors. The Major in -charge of the record office asked me to draft one and signed on the dotted lines. My immediate Commissioned Officer, insisted on writing one himself. I took leave of my friends n colleagues who had seen me through the hardest 4 years of our life. The Principal of Pitman’s Institute was generous in his farewell ‘testimonial’ to me.

I packed my bags n took leave of my family in Poona for the new start in Bombay. I was to stay with Mamaji’s family for 8-9 months before we rented a house and the family moved from Poona to Bombay next year.

I reported nice n bright at the Security Office of the Stanvac Refinery on the morning of September 5, 1955. I was greeted by Mr. Narendra Dhawan who was the Receptionist at the Main Gate. A fellow Panjabi, Dhawan was happy to welcome me. He asked for my particulars. I told him my full name and he said: this is to long. So I told him to record as Rajinder Ahluwalia. He said that too was too long. He countered why not Raj Ahluwalia? Raj Kapoor was quite the rage after having released hits like Barsaat and Awara. Also Dhawan had some family connections with the film industry. I don’t think the name Bollywood was coined yet. I plumped for the short name which was to be my business name for the rest of my life. Yet only the other day when I connected with my long lost colleague Santosh Wadhwani, he reminded me: oh you are the one with the initials RBSA ! Reality trumps in the long run.

After the formalities at the Main Gate I proceeded to the Reception Cabin of Trombay House, There sat the very dapper Mr. Santosh Wadhwani. He welcomed me warmly. He was glad to be relieved of the routine sort of job which he was doing in addition to his more cerebral activities. He was a post graduate and his job was to administer recruitment tests and to set the yard sticks for the same. A hugely statistical exercise, beyond the level of my education. He moved out of the cabin and said: I walk out and you please walk in. For Receptionist was to be my first job. I said Dapper: surely because Santosh was a handsome, tall n slim young man. He wore very smart clothes. Even at the end of the day, the crease on his clothes was never disheveled. He and I were to be the close colleagues till such time as he transferred out to the Marketing organization. Thereby hangs another tale. I shall come to that by and by.

I was presented to my boss: Madan Kamra, Head of Employment n Labour Relations Division. Having spent the last four years in the Military, I addressed him as Sir. I got immediate taste of the Civilian and American culture: he corrected me: No need to “Sir”; Madan will do. I was to have an ironic déjà vu of this conversation when I joined Forbes Group under the American educated Chairman Girin Khanwala. That story should wait for a few weeks.

Santosh conducted me around the office and introduced me to some of the seniors in the Department: B.M.Sitlani who was the Emplyee Relations Manager Graham Waugh who was mentoring BMS and Mohd Kaiser the Public Relations Manager. Those were early days of the Refinery’s Operations. There were Americans heading all important functions. These two functions were the first ones to be handed over to the Indian Incumbents. It was only later that I ‘learned” that the go-around that I went thru with Santosh was the process known as: Induction.

The other Division Heads in the Employee Relations Dept were Nana Chudasama, heading Housing n Welfare and Vijay Chibber, ex Navy, heading Security, and Jagan Nathan heading Safety. Nana was several years my senior at Wadia College. In fact he was the Company Commander of NCC Unit, from which I disqualified on medical grounds. The Other Company Commander Parduman Singh Ahluwalia was destined to be have his sister married to my Chacha Jeet (younger son of Mama Narinder Singh). Both of his sisters n my Chacha Jeet are the in pic of Mamaji’s Family appended to the Chapter 4.

Nana is a handsome n well dressed man even in his 80s. In his youth he was quite a fashion plate and a man about town. He did not spend too much time in the office. Maybe his job called for lots work in town. As the Receptionist of the Building where Nana had his office, I had to bear the wrath of the Anglo Indian Telephone Operator Ms. Johnson:

“Where is Nana?

I don’t know.

Why don’t you put chewing gum on his seat!”

She was a tall strapping lass with a booming voice and a floor shaking walk in high heals. Pretty in her own way.

Hey, Nana, if you do get to read this, hardly likely, forgive the levity. But gala kasam, fultoo sach hai.

Nana n his elder brother Mota were to figure again as common friends of the people closest to me in Forbes Group. Bombay corporate circles were not such a wide world.

Ramu continued to be my guide in the Refinery and we would meet in the canteen at lunch. Once when I phoned him on the intercom, his boss told me “he will meet you in the canteen”. Tough guy his boss… The boss went on to become the Financial Controller in Esso India and I had much interaction with him.

More of my work at Stanvac and life in Bombay, in the next chapter.