I was invited for an urgent
meeting with the Managing Director of a fairly large (IT) multinational
company, for preliminary discussions on providing training to their managerial
staff, at 3-PM in the afternoon at Sector-16, Noida. Ms. Mini Varghese the Vice
President (HR) advised me not to visit Noida by car and instead, she suggested,
I should take a Metro train from Gurgaon’s Huda City Centre to
reach her office at Noida-Sector-16 metro station; that would be convenient,
easier, faster and safer mode of journey for me.
It was a very hot
afternoon, temperature crossing 45 degree and I felt the effect of hot air when
I came out of my AC car and walked towards the ticket counter at Huda City
Centre Station-Gurgaon. The queue at Counter No. 2 was smaller so I joined the
line; there were 15 odd people in front of me but I could see no movement at
all, a group of female passengers were standing at the ticket counter and the
counter-clerk was not issuing them the tickets (Metro-Token) he was repeatedly
requesting them to come in one line because there were no separate queue
facility for the female passengers and he refused to issue them the journey
tickets.
It was already 1.20-PM and
I was getting impatient. Moreover, my shirt was fully soaked/wet with my sweat
due to the excessive heat and humidity. Slowly my line moved forward and within
the next five minutes or so I came very close to the counter. The female
passengers were still standing at the counter and not allowing counter-clerk to
issue the tickets to the other passengers of our line. Finally, my turn came
and I asked him for one ticket for Noida-Sector-16; I also requested the
counter clerk to issue tickets to those ladies who were standing for a long
time in the hot weather. He looked at me with a mischievous smile and nodded
his head in acceptance of my suggestion.
After collecting my ticket
I moved towards the security gate when someone called me from the back: “Sir,
your money please” and I saw the same lady who was arguing with the
counter-clerk for ticket, kept one Rupee coin on my palm and said: “The counter
clerk has given this for you”. The token price was Rs. 29 and I paid Rs. 30;
hence this refund. By the time, I could offer my thanks to her she moved ahead
and within a fraction of a second vanished in the crowd.
Since this was the starting
point/station, I got the sitting space very easily and after settling down on
my seat I opened my briefcase, pulled out a book and started reading. After
about 45 minutes or so I looked up from my book and enquired from the person
sitting next to me about Rajiv Chowk station. He replied to me by saying: “Two
more stations and the third one will be your station”. I decided to close my
book and got mentally prepared to get down at Rajiv Chowk station so that I can
change over the train for Noida. My coach was fully packed with passengers and
the exit gate was over crowded. I got up from my seat but could not move
further, finally the station came and within the next 30 seconds I was out of
the coach along with other passengers, all without any effort on my part to
reach the exit gate as people pushed me to come out of the coach.
Around three o’-clocks I
reached Sector-16 and when I got down at the station, I saw one car-driver in
company’s uniform waiting carrying a placard of my name in his right hand. He
wished me with his folded hands and said: “Mini Varghese Madam has sent the car
for you, Sir.” On arrival at the office, first Ms. Mini Varghese received
me at the reception and straight away took me to Mr. Sujit Koushik’s (SK Sir)
cabin who happened to be the Managing Director of this company. He greeted me
so warmly as if he knew me since ages. I got my second surprise when he spoke
to me in Bengali language. I never expected such a warm and personal welcome
from a person whom I am meeting for the first time. It deeply touched my heart
in the first meeting itself.
I asked one straight
question to Mr. SK Sir: “Can you please tell me who gave you my reference?” He
answered with a big smile: "Ms. Mini Varghese is your big fan as she reads
all your blogs and articles and it was her idea to arrange a training workshop
for our management team, hence this meeting." We discussed for two hours
for the proposed workshop and at the end the question of my remuneration
propped-up; I told them at the outset that I am basically a Marketing
Professional and selling is my passion. Manpower training is my hobby but both
are very close to my heart and I don’t charge anything for the training
programmes.
SK sir very politely
changed the topic and requested me to develop one more programme for his field
Sales and Servicing team also. At the end, he offered me one envelops (Training
Contract) which he told me to open only after reaching home. Therefore, without
further arguments I accepted the said envelops and I left his chamber after
wishing him goodbye.
Ms. Mini Varghese came out
along with me and requested me to accompany her. Since her request was so
humble and honest, I could not turn-down her invitation
and followed her. Ms. Mini Varghese’s chamber was fully furnished and on
her table one laptop was lying along with her mobile phone; on her side table a
photograph of an old couple was kept who seemed
to be her parents. She first told me to sit down and thereafter she took her
mobile phone; she made a casual look on the missed calls and also browsed her
in-book for any urgent mail, within few minutes she was done with her mobile
and then she opened her laptop where there were more than 60 e-mails in the
in-box and she immediately shut her laptop by saying: “I will look into it
later”.
Meanwhile, I saw two office
staff entered her cabin with two big trays carrying one chocolate
cake and one plate each of sweets, snacks, biscuits, two glasses of water
and tea cups. She came next to my chair and took my right hand into her hands
and said: “Please pray for my father, you see that photograph, (By showing me
the photograph of an old couple lying on her side table), they are Mr. and Mrs.
Varghese, my parents staying in Kochi at Kerala state. Her father had retired
from central Government job in Ranchi and now settled down in their native home
town in Kerala. She has two brothers, both married and settled abroad. She
stays in Noida along with her husband who is not from her community and
presently working with a private organization at Ghaziabad.
Later she told me that
today happen to be her father’s 62nd birthday and since he is
not with her here, she wanted me to cut the cake on behalf of her father.
I could see, she was trying her best to control her tears but somehow
those emotions could not be stopped by any means and at the end she could not
control herself any longer and busted out with her emotions, tears started
flowing and an uncertain fear was very prominent on her face.
I was feeling myself
totally in an awkward position and I was almost at a loss without knowing my
next course of action. She later told me the reason of her sudden breakdown.
She is the youngest member in the family and was highly pampered by her father and
brothers. She was much close to her father who had recently been detected
with lever disorder and the damage is so severe that the possibility of any
cure is meagre. First, he was having fever later it was diagnosed as jaundice
and after thorough investigation it was confirmed that the lever is 90%
damaged. Now he is taking treatment under Ayurveda at Kerala and is
responding to those treatments positively.
I tried my best to console
her but she was not in a position to accept the fact that patients with fully
damaged lever can also survive for long. Her father was having severe lever
problem which is in advanced stage and Doctor’s were also not ready to operate
on him.
Since Ms. Mini
Varghese had read my blogs and came to know about my father (Bapuji) but who
had left me 12 years back and I am left with his old memories only but he is
still in my heart and not a single day passes without remembering
him. I missed him so much because I loved him from the bottom of my heart.
Therefore, I could understand the feelings of Mini Madam. Now I have understood
why I was called here today and invited to conduct training programme. It
was her idea only. Indeed, she had done a lot of home work and made a very
impressive power point presentation on my work and convinced the management to
call me for a formal discussion and to my surprise today’s date was
also chosen by her.
I requested her to invite
SK sir and other management staff also so that we all can pray together for the
well being of her father. I persuaded her to cut the cake on behalf of her
father as that would be really nice. But she did not accept my suggestion even
after my repeated requests and almost forced me to cut the cake. Finally, she
invited MD sir, all the management staff also and after a small ceremony everyone
left the room except us.
Thereafter, she connected
her father on internet and told him about today’s episode in details in her
mother tongue. After formal introduction I noticed Mr. Varghese was really
looking very pale and sick. I saw her mother standing next to him looking at us
with a smile hiding her fear and sadness in it. She was rubbing her
wet eyes with a hanker-chief after every few seconds but in-spite of her best
efforts she could not hide her agony.
I don’t exactly know when
even Mini madam also started sobbing. I wanted to console her but failed
miserably. We both sat quietly for a few minutes without uttering a single
word. I started reciting sermons from Shri Guru Grant Sahib (The Holy
Scriptures). She had also drifted silently into her own world and forgot
that she was still sitting in her office. After half an hour or so, she
stopped weeping and a soft smile came on her face. She slowly came towards
me, bowed down and touched my feet by the time I could realize what was
happening, then she came back to her seat and asked me in a very soft
voice: “Care for one more cup of tea, Sir” and before I could answer
she picked up the phone and instructed the peon to serve two hot cups of
tea.
Within the next ten
minutes, tea along with biscuits came. Over a cup of tea I explained to her
about the next course of action. I promised her that I would pray to my father
(Bapuji) and also visit Gurudwara Sahib to offer my prayers for the well
being of her father and I assured her that with grace of God Almighty her
father would definitely get well soon, very soon, trust me.
I left her office with a
very heavy heart knowing full well that I could do very
little to save her father; to be honest it’s not at all in anybody's
hands to give a new lease of life to any human being. I could
neither save my own life nor the lives of my family members, simply
because life and death are "In the hands of God" only and no
human being on this earth can do any miracles in such matters. But yes,
one thing is for sure, prayers have lot of power and sometimes answered
also; so, let’s all pray for Mr. Varghese so that he may be blessed
with a happy, healthy, cheerful and peaceful life in the days ahead,
Amen!
With Prayers
Gurcharan
