An amusing thing happened. I got an interview call from Cacutta when I was posted in Delhi. I could not make much out of the role but being away from my mother city , I was inspired by my mother to fly down to Calcutta and have some sumptuous food as I had not been home for long and I had recently recovered from almost a life threatening battle with diarrhoea after consuming fruit juice from a local fruitstall in South Delhi while on a market visit . As the flight fare was being reimbursed , I decided to take a hop down to Calcutta .
The call was from a company called the Duncans Group. I was always starry eyed about the colonial companies in Calcutta . They covered industries from tea to jute to mining. Many of you may be familiar with the boxwallah culture. This involved doing business in monopoly areas , having a critical competitive advantage in the industry. It involved focused paperwork and completing work within a scheduled work hour , maintaining discipline in the office and leaving by evening for a game of football or cricket followed by swimming . Among the clubs CCFC was a favourite while for other sports inviting longer hours like golfing there were elite clubs like the Royal Calcutta Golf Club and the Tollygunge Club. More of these stories later .
As my flight landed in Calcutta I was elated to walk into a yellow and black taxi and scamper back home with various delicacies ready and a visit from my elder sister who had also plunged in from Mumbai with my brother in law on a holiday. The mission of course was also to look for a marriage proposal for me as the inspired task was undertaken by my parents and my sister and me butting to reject most of the proposals.
I was called for an interview to a sister company of the Group based in Theatre Road now known as Shakespeare Sarani. It was a well designed , well planned office displaying good taste and was a in a newly constructed swanky building called Duckback House . As you drove towards it ,you could watch a lovely eggroll shop called SherePunjab on the same pavement and on the side lay a Louis Phillipe Shop selling trendy garments . Two important locations Kala Mandir and the International Club were also close by .
The office also had a nice light and shade ambience with a pretty Bengali receptionist and some friendly bearers around. The Group Adviser was a sharp man with silver hair appeared to have joined after retirement. Put up a countenance of firmness but smilingly polite. His chamber was neat and provided a good semblance of taste with professionalism.
The man keenly went through my IIT and IIM Marksheets questioning on various electives I had undertaken and asking a few simple questions as to why I did / did not perform in various subjects. I did give him a feel that routine operations and target achievements had taken on a formula shape and while I was being recognized and praised and won a number of awards for Outstanding Performance, I was mostly lacking direction in terms of objectives in life.
He then directed me to the Chamber of the Managing Director. This gentleman with a well trimmed and maintained beard had a pretty large Chamber with a good view of Shakespeare Sarani and the room was pretty sound proof with large windows. He appeared to be soft spoken with few words but profoundly intelligent. He apparently held a record in the 1960s in the CA Examination which is still unbroken. Made me a talk a lot on my skillsets and then told me that the particular Company in the Group was not performing well and painted some bright stories of upcoming JVs with Korean companies and I would have to make frequent trips to such countries to help revive the Company. Although my gut told me that it was a cock and bull story being chucked at me , I nevertheless convinced myself that staying in Calcutta and getting options for overseas travel would be any man's dream , especially considering the quality of difficult life I was leading in a very hot and painful and wild and chilly Delhi.
(to be continued)
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