Wednesday, 20 June 2012

Call of Duty! : Blog # 33

Call of Duty


      
                    When my sister and I were school goers, we used to stay at a rented house closer to her school. That home has many sweet memories and remain a favorite till date.

              One saturday morning, we had a visitor. I was in 8th grade then.Dad was on his 28days leave from Abudhabi. He used to work in off shore rig back then. I opened the door and saw a person in white shirt and black pants.What caught my eye was his golden framed spectacles. I closed the door half way and went back to dad telling him he has a visitor.Dad went to the door and ushered that person in. I heard him saying " My son don't know you.Sorry that he kept you waiting here.Please come inside."

                Then they discussed many things over a cup of tea. When he left, dad told me "You shouldn't have left him waiting at the door. He is a Bank manager".  From next time onwards, I made sure he was welcomed properly. He was a very unassuming , humble  person.

               Now I understand the relevance of his visiting us at home. It was in mid 1990s. He was a branch manager at SBT. The four lettered private banks were not as prolific back then. So a Bank manager had no need to visit a customer's house. 

               Over the years, he became a friend of dad's and Suresh uncle for us.He was given the charge of a branch in Ollur, a small town in Kerala. That branch was facing  shut down and he was in charge of bringing some business. Dad, being an NRI back then was a premium customer. At times, he went on to the extent of delivering cash at home when dad was away. ATMs were a rare sighting in those days.

               Dad says  Suresh uncle used to travel up and down to Trivandrum (6 hrs away from here) every weekend to meet his parents.He was working so hard and yet he had a wonderful work-life balance. He used to visit many of his customers at their office/home and saved the branch from closure . Later on , he got a transfer with a promotion. 

                Thinking about it now makes me realize he was a great manager indeed.

                                                                                                                                               Arun Babu.

No comments:

Post a Comment