Sunday, May 14, 2017

My boss rode a scooter and wore a wig


Here is the ninth unforgettable character in my life …

He was one of my bosses. Very stern looking, he wore a wig to cover the bald pate and, when he rode his scooter to office, he would push up the goggles to hold the wig in place. He was a retired Senior Officer of Air Force and the original Italian Fiat car was one of his prized possessions. He could play the guitar and one of his favorite songs was ‘Sunday kay Sunday….’ Every Sunday, he spent a lot of time inside the bonnet of his car, wiping clean all traces of dirt, oil and whatever unwanted items he could see.
When I reported to him on an internal transfer, he looked up from his papers, grunted and asked me to contact one of the other officers. He did not seem to be happy about inducting me into his department because I was, like him, a Bengali and he somehow had a very bad opinion about Bengalis. I did not have much choice and, since there was no space to put another table in the office for me, I was asked to share a table with another person. We sat on either side of one table!
I might mention here that the department was an important one and a majority of the officers were aged, experienced persons who could assist the customer by retrieving necessary information in a jiffy based on their long association with the air force. I felt I was a misfit in this group and, with a boss who would have preferred me to move out to some other department, I was in a dilemma. Suddenly, after nearly six months, one of the official letters came to me. My boss had noted in the margin: ‘Ghose, let me have details.’ I was elated – at long last, I had a specific work assigned by my boss. In real earnest, I went around gathering information. I was like Hanuman – I did not know what my boss had in mind therefore I had to pick up every bit of connected information so that I could answer all his questions.
We had a wonderful association after that. I gradually became one of his trusted lieutenants and, whenever any typical problem surfaced, he would ask me to share my ideas on it. He is now enjoying his retired life in Hyderabad.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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