The daily survival for two and half years, in the 11th part.

 

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE TOUGH GET GOING.

I AM GOING ON WITH FULL FORCE EVEN NOW

 

 

 

 

THE CHURNING OF THE OF OCEAN OF LIFE - MY OWN STORY PART 11 - GAME OF https://library.iterable.com/3110/20487/e1906b9337a645468b9c46ba71f1ee5e-ipm2_india.jpgLADDERS AND SNAKES BEGINS IN RIGHT EARNEST- SNAKE II

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“A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”

 

ERNEST HEMINGWAY,

 

THE CHURNING OF THE OCEAN OF MY LIFE  PART 11

 

PROLOGUE to 11th part.

 

A BRIEF PEEP INTO THE FUTURE EVENTS BEFORE I GO INTO THE STORY AGAIN

 

I saw a news item in a local newspaper, when I was in the process of writing my memoirs that Senior officers of ten or more banks held a silent protest against non-repayment of about Rs.1000 crores, by M/S Progressive Constructions Private Limited, owned by ex-Congress Minister KS Rao. My tussle with top management of our Bank started with this account only. I refused to recommend renewal of credit limits of this account. I quoted at least ten defaults in the account and recommended, "If the higher authorities feel, they can renew the limits. Personally, I feel the limits must be suspended" Soon, I got a call from Chairman's Secretariat but I did not budge." My Manager suggested that I go on leave and he got it recommended by the next officer. That was the start of my end. My career ended but today, I am a happy man that officers of ten banks are on streets unable to recover the amounts. My premonition proved right. And from then on, I had a running feud with the Company Officials and a direct threat was issued by one Sri BK Rao, brain behind Sri KS Rao, that he would see how I would continue in the Bank. And I did not. More on this in the coming parts. I told him that I was already out of the Bank the day I entered it and I told him what more he could do, hang me? I am ready” Message reached the Regional Manager and through him to the highest authority. I was threatened I did not budge. More about my tussle with politician their deeds and misdeeds will come in the following chapters.

 

 

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This is part 11 of my own story. I already explained why I preferred to write my own story. I am not that great. But there is something that tells you a story in my life, the story of great success and great failure, all at a time. Those who see this first time may refer to the earlier parts.

Life is a mix of ups and downs for many. I am not an exception. But my psychology did not fit in   the world and its ways. Still, I continue in the same mindset.  Hence, my rosy life still has many thorns, unseen by many. Hopefully, I will live like this and leave the world like this, unsung.

 

Let me go back to life in Corporation Bank, where I started a stuttering new career. I just turned twenty-five. I had earned the experience of a lifetime by then. The sudden demise of my father, the shunning of responsibility of family by my three elder brothers, my sisters and mother depending on me, my wife who was carrying by then, forced change of job and the snakes ready to bite at every opportune moment in the new job, all made me tougher by the day. I heard about the Bank’s working style, the antipathy of executives and staff towards outsiders and many bad things after I resigned from LIC. All was lost by that time. The outsiders were treated as aliens and eased out on one pretext or the other." And I had another heavy burden on my head that I was a candidate selected out of the way on the recommendation of an outsider, that too from Andhra Pradesh. But "Buddhi Karmanusarena". My decision was made. And at that time, I was not fearing anybody. But fate had it otherwise. 

After the training in Mangalore I was posted to Bellary, considered as punishment posting, in the Bank. In the Bank this belt, Bellary, Anantapur, Chitradurga etc., were hot beds of Trade Unionism where Officers were sweating it out to get the routine work done, leave alone, development of branch deposits and advances that formed the core of a Branch profile. Managers in these Branches were always on their toes, fighting it out with the Union leaders. I reported for duty in Bellary under Mr. U. Vikramaditya Nayak, considered in the Bank as one of the most dynamic Managers. Reception was contemptuous, as expected. I was asked to learn basics sitting in clerical counters. It took me hardly a week. The Manager, initially, was very hostile. He was continuously complaining to the Regional Manager that he asked for a regular officer and not one who had to be trained in basics. His grouse was understandable. He was short of officers, who could look after the Branch work, in his absence. I understood the dynamics very quickly. Managers were unwilling to stay in the Branch and face the staff. They used to go out in the early hours, for the sake of deposit mobilization and come back only after the staff left. But as I was only a trainee, it was not possible to hand over the keys of the cash chest to me. The Manager had little confidence in the other officer, Mr.Raghupathi, a very senior officer stagnated in his scale for several years. 

 

 

 

 

After about a fortnight of my joining, the then Regional Manager, Mr.Aiyar paid a visit to the Branch. His first target was me. He called me inside and asked the same question that Mr. Subbarao asked me in the Training College in the Head Office. "With whose recommendation did you get the job?" I gave the same reply, "God's recommendation". He was furious and started dancing like a hurt tiger. My manager was trying to explain that I was very sharp and picked up work very fast. No! He said he would see me out of the bank soon. He resigned within a month from then as he was facing serious corruption charges. His place was filled by another hostile Regional Manager, Sri K.R. Mallya, with whom I had a running feud for almost four years. Finally, he, a General Manager, haunted me throughout and spied on every transaction I carried out and booked me for small indiscretions, branded me dishonest and punished me with capital punishment. Many in the Bank know the truth, though my own brothers, sisters and their spouses never agreed to accept it. Here, I should mention my elder brother-in-law, who enjoys the illegitimate earnings of his father and talks about honesty. Hypocrisy at its peak defines his personality.

The less I mention of my third brother the less it will be disgusting. He earned his job with the recommendation of his friend, never showed any brilliance as a clerk or officer and he was fighting pitched oral battles with all colleagues and customers (as told by his colleagues), worked as a rural bank Manager and failed in his duty, took his own time to get promoted to his next scale. He tries to talk about events that never happened and goes on parroting “I was dismissed as the most dishonest officer”, a hearsay that spread like wildfire, because I never discussed about my Bank career with anyone. Even my wife, who lived with me every second of my life since I joined the bank, might be surprised to know the facts from this memoir of mine.

                                                                                        

 

Three to four months on, my manager developed a special affection for me. He was awe- struck. He told anyone who visited the Branch that in his service, he never witnessed a sharper brain. I almost became the second man in the Branch within four months, having effective control on the whole staff including my Senior Officer, who never grudged my taking over the Branch. He was thanking me for helping him out of tricky issues. We were a team along with few youngsters who joined as clerks.   I started controlling the whole branch operations effectively by then. He started handing over the keys of Cash-Chest to me. But, one guy from North Canara District, Monja Ganiga, an attendant promoted as a clerk, was the most unhappy of all. Thitherto, he was the most trusted assistant of the Manager, carrying canards from here to there and back, thus keeping the gulf between the Manager and staff. He was so close to the Manager that he paid a visit to his house at least once a day, "carrying news". This was, is and will be a bad habit with many senior officers. As I slowly took over, I rubbished his claims. I was ensuring that the Manager spent more time with the staff. This, naturally, incensed Ganiga. But he was helpless. Though a trainee, I was the most loved one in the Branch. I was having a very good time climbing the ladder. But a snake bit me in the form of the Regional Manager.

 

Around October 1978, eight months after joining the Branch, our manager showed me a confidential letter from RM. Usually, these letters were addressed personally to the Manager and were not shared with anyone. But by that time, our Manager had developed so much affection for me (he could improve the business by 250% since he had a good officer to look after branch work), that he shared the contents with me. The gist was that one Mr. Prabhakar Sheth, (related to the RM closely, it was said) , working in Mandipet, Davangere was facing a lot of problems with the union leaders there and requested a transfer. The RM proposed to post him to Bellary and post me in his place. Naturally, our manager was furious. He showed me his reply, saying that he could not spare my services. There was continuous correspondence and phone conversations between the two. Finally, our manager had to consent to relieve me only after the year-end, 31st December. Orders came. Sheth, who was waiting in the wings, joined immediately. My relieving was set for the Second of January, 1979. Seeing my personality, the heavy-weight body builder Mr.Sheth commented, "There are lots of snakes in Davangere. I applied for two months' leave unable to bear the torture. I suffered from depression and loose motions. I was afraid to go to the Branch to get relieved also. I think you may not survive there for even fifteen days. He courteously advised me to search for another job and resign from the Bank. Being a relation of the Regional Manager, he confessed to me that the RM intentionally posted me there so that I resign on my own and he need not take blame of dismissing me for non-performance. There are two powerful forces in Davangere, by names Mr. Shivayogappa and Mr.Maheswarappa. The first was a Lingayat and the second one a Vokkaliga, the two most powerful and inimical communities in Karnataka. They will suck your blood no sooner you join there." I just smiled away. Even my Manager told me, while relieving me, that he was feeling like his son was being sent to the war front. He called my wife and me for lunch, the first in his service that he called any staff member to his house for iunch, his wife told us. Ganiga was happy, he could get back to his old ways.

 

So, on 2nd January 1979, I set out to Davangere with my wife, a six- month- old girl child, a mat, two pillows, bed sheets, a kerosene stove, a few utensils all packed and carried on top of the bus. I was not owning a chair or even a transistor radio at that time. I set foot in Mandipet, Davangere Branch. The same evening, I was relieved to report in the other branch in the town, PB Road, Davangere Branch, as there were no officers there, and the Manager of Mandipet Branch, anyhow, did not want a trainee officer. His name was M.S.Adiga, one of the most controversial officers in the Bank. He too was compulsorily retired from the Bank on serious charges of corruption. You can imagine the ways of management, one rule to locals and another for outsiders.

 

The next morning, I reported to the PB Road Branch. This Branch was a hotbed of Union Politics. In this Branch, the National Secretary of the Union, Mr. Joshi was a senior clerk. A soft-spoken but hard nut, this man read the rule book from the first letter to the last one and the last to the first. It was becoming difficult for Managers and officers to argue with him. He was not a bad man. I observed this within a week. He was branded bad by managers and officers who were ineffective in tackling him. As a matter of routine, I was introduced to the staff by the Manager. The Branch had a peculiar situation. Besides the manager, there was no other officer in the Branch. In such circumstances, the most senior clerk officiated as officer and performed daily routine work. He also holds the keys to the Cash Chest.  After I was deputed to the P.B. Road, Davangere Branch, a dispute arose between the clerical union led by Joshi and supported by strong unionists and the manager if I could replace him as a regular officer, since I was only a trainee, not considered a regular officer. The clerk officiating in the place of an officer received a special allowance called the “officiating allowance,” with no responsibilities attached to the officer's post. The manager, Mr. C.K. Kamath, a very Senior officer, worked in the Administration wing in the Head Office. I told both the manager and Mr. Joshi that I handled the Cash Chest in Bellary for nine months. Somehow, after some discussion, we decided there was no need for the clerk to handle the keys. That settled the issue.

Our manager was Mr. C.K. Kamath. His weakness was that his entire service was in the Head Office. His knowledge of the Branch operations was very poor. The second officer in line was on long leave, so effectively I was second in line. He was not happy. A trainee and a manager were all, that were available to run branch operations. I made friends with Joshi first and sought his guidance on the Branch operations there. He was helping me my work. This surprised the Manager. Other clerks followed Joshi. Within a fortnight, I started clearing the pending work in the branch. Mr. Joshi and other clerks completed their daily routine and sat after banking hours to help me to clear the pending work. The message spread fast and reached to Mandipet. Shivayogappa, who was on leave the day I joined, came particularly to see me. He wanted to see how I looked and what was so special in me that made Mr. Joshi, one of my best guides. He was poor in speaking English and my knowledge of Kannada was good. But it was not fluent. Soon after I was introduced to him, I folded both hands and said "Namaskara". His reaction was surprising. "Did nobody tell you who I am?" he asked. I said I heard a lot about him. But I heard lot about Mr. Joshi also. He made a funny comment. “Any officer who knows about him would have avoided him but instead I greeted him with folded hands. It seems I was exorcizing him. I replied that he might be a clerk and I might be an officer, but there was a wide gap in our ages.  “What is wrong in a young man greeting an elderly and respected clerk with folded hands?” I asked.  He said I was too clever. It would not help me in Mandipet branch. I knew I was in a tiger’s den.  Mr. Joshi diverted the subject. That was my first encounter with a man who was branded as a demon in the region, but who became my best friend in three years. I knew that minute that the act which I thought of worked well with Shivayogappa. He was not a highly educated man but was very fast in the performance of his duties. As it was with the local landlord boys, he was haughty. I made a plan for him that day itself. He was a paper tiger whom the officers made a man-eating tiger. I understood he suffers from the weakness that many of us suffer from, namely, personal ego. It it is satisfied, I could tackle him, I decided. But there were other related issues. I thought I would think about them when I am faced with them.

 

 

During my deputation period, I cleared the pending work in the Branch. The Manager was so impressed with my capacity at work and my management skills. He refused to relieve me after my deputation period.  There was a tussle between him, the other manager and the Regional Manager. The Regional Manager got wind of my capacity and thought that if I continued in that Branch, I would be a tough nut to crack. So, the RM forced the manager to relieve me forthwith. Of the two branches in Davangere, Mandipet Branch was tougher to manage. In the P.B. Road Branch, Joshi was the authority and Regional Manager himself was hesitant to oppose him. He understood that Joshi appreciated me. (Irony was that the Manager was later reverted and posted to the Branch and was taking instructions from me, as I was de facto number two there. He was almost fifty-five years old ). A week before, the manager called me into his cabin after office hours and requested me to teach the branch work. He wanted to know how I could manage one of the most unruly staff so effectively at such a young age. I gave him some tips about branch work and management tactics. Surprisingly, he requested me to guide him to tackle any issue in future. He said he would call me in case of any problem and that I should take some time off to go to his branch to settle the issue. In the next six months thereafter, I went at least half a dozen times to solve issues concerning his customers  and staff.

Back in my parent branch, I was greeted with enthusiasm this time around. The manager was skeptic, though. He already earned a very bad reputation as ineffective and corrupt to the core. Most of the time, he was sleeping in his quarters.  The Branch was being managed by one Mr. Ramnath Nayak, who was the blue-eyed boy of the Regional Manager.  He was very efficient, though cranky. My role was limited to playing second fiddle to this Senior Officer. He guided me in the Branch profile and, soon I learned the intricacies of the branch.  I studied each officer and clerk and listed their weaknesses and strengths in my own mind.  As Nayak’s promotion and transfer were in the offing soon, he slowly delegated the work to me. Soon, he left on a promotion. 

Trade Unionism in the Banking and Insurance sectors could not be called "militant", but the very nature of operations made it a pain in the neck for officers on the job. Both sectors were directly dealing with customers, who expected better service . In the Banking sector, it was more so, as the customer is to be served within a time frame, say from 10.30 AM to 2.30 PM and the day's account had to be tallied and closed by 5.30 PM. It was all manual. There was no permission to use even a pocket calculator. Only in the middle parts of the eighties we were permitted to use calculators. But these too were supplied to only the bigger branches. 

To add to the pain, there were two strong unions in these parts of Karnataka. One was the NOBW, affiliated to the BMS, the minority union and the majority union, Communist-leaning AIBEA. There was a constant tussle between these two unions, thus making the lives of officers miserable. Working hours used to stretch to midnight some days. In Mandipet, there were two AIBEA stalwarts Shivayogappa and Maheswarappa, each controlling his own group and at loggerheads all the time, sometimes, it used to deteriorate to a physical brawl. NOBW was represented by Ramesh Prabhu, who was equally vociferous like the other two. Whenever a new recruit joined, the tussle used to multiply in order to enrol him in the respective unions. I observed officers were indirectly promoting the interests of one group or the other in a "divide and rule" policy. This boomeranged usually. Unless the leader takes all with him, the going will be tough for all.

Thus, life at Davangere left an indelible mark on my life. My family life suffered. My prolonged working hours troubled my wife, who was struggling with two children and carrying again. It went to such an extent that she was picking quarrels with the manager's wife, in broken Kannada. Once, she told her that she needed family life and "leave my husband to me and to my children
“. It was amusing, though I took it lightly.  Even now, it looks funny to me. (Me and my Manager used to stay in the same building, attached to the Bank).


It is boring to read minute details of one's family and working life. But in each step, I faced challenges. If I look back, I feel that all my decisions were wrong, prima facie, but a deep introspection convinces me that I was right at every step, uncompromising and stubborn. Or, would I have been in a position to recollect each incident and write this? I kept my mind clean and my brain sharp.  That was and is my singular achievement. As I go further, you will understand.

 

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