PART 2: THE RENAISSANCE -----> Chapter 5

Early next morning, Lok uncle and I were on our way to the client’s corporate office at Kollam. The client was a man known as Captain Ironman Shahnawaz. He had served as Captain in the Indian Army. Lok uncle told me more about him as we sped towards the destination in uncle’s Zen.

The Captain belonged to a family of businesspeople. Their group had several businesses. But he decided to join the army. He lost his legs in battle and had to withdraw from service. But he was a man of great courage and conviction. Physical disability failed to dampen his spirits and he joined the Group’s business. His extraordinary leadership skills took the business to great heights. This resulted in his elevation as head of the Group.

“Why do such people join the army in the first place if their talent lies elsewhere?” I wondered aloud. “Ultimately these people terrorize those downstream into submission.”

“Their military experience gives them the ability to manage and lead,” replied Lok Uncle. “He’s also a man of compassion…known to contribute generously to families of jawans killed in battle.”

“Test discards finally end up being coaches,” I replied sarcastically.

Uncle’s silence meant he didn’t like my comment. I felt uneasy.

We reached his office a little earlier than the stipulated time. While waiting to meet him, we observed the behavior of the employees there. They seemed to be carrying out their duties with utmost discipline and professionalism. There was a sense of urgency and commitment in the way they worked. I was impressed. It looked like I had to eat my own words.

“Lok uncle, this is what I meant when I had talked about an ideal organization culture,” I said to uncle making a sudden U-turn. He nodded his head in approval.

At 11:30 am we were sitting in front of him. We had already begun our conversation. “I am extremely sorry for this mishap. I’m ready to replace the defectives with new ones conforming to the specifications, given a week’s time,” Lok uncle apologized. Mr. Shahnawaz had already been apprised of the situation by his staff the day before.

I noticed a glossy placed of a most beautiful girl on his table. I paid closer attention to it. She must have been eighteen years of age. No. May be twenty or even… The next second I saw the photograph in Captain’s hands. I looked on in embarrassment.

“That’s my granddaughter,” he replied.

I smiled sheepishly. Consoling myself, I thought Rad was better. But I could have had a better look at it.

“Mr. Lokanath, currently your defectives are being held up as inventory,” he proceeded. “We haven’t used it in production yet. We were building up a reserve stock expecting the demand to shoot up soon. So thus far no damage has been done. And by the way, our inspectors also didn’t detect the defects. If you had chosen to keep mum about this, we would probably not have known about it. So, I appreciate your honesty. Business, after all, is based on trust,” Mr. Shahnawaz replied.

“You are a valuable client of ours,” I responded trying hard to get noticed. “We would never want to lose you.”

“You won’t lose us because of this particular incident,” he assured. “Even we have had a similar experience. That too, when I had just joined the business after coming back from the Army. Our client gave us a second chance and we made the most of it.”

“Thank you,” said Lok uncle.

“Sir, despite the fact that you came from a family with a business background, why did you join the Army?” I asked Mr. Shahnawaz curiously.

He glared at me. I realized that I shouldn’t have because the answer seemed quite obvious. He then said, “Because I wanted to serve my country and protect its people.” I gulped, causing my Adam’s apple to move up and down. He then raised his voice and continued, “But I have never ever regretted it. Even if God gifted both legs back to me, I would still become an Indian Army Officer.”

Lok uncle, realizing my folly, came to my rescue. He intervened, “That’s why everybody calls you Captain Ironman Shahnawaz.” Mr. Shahnawaz didn’t respond to uncle’s comment.

He reminded us, “Like we have agreed. You have one week’s time to replace the defectives.” We came out of his room and left the place after completing some paperwork.

***

On our way back to Alappuzha, I began to think about active patriotism and about Capt. Ironman Shahnawaz’s love for the country. I realized that attitude is the most important thing. If one has got the right attitude, nothing is impossible.

I contacted Radha and informed her about the developments. “I’ll meet you at 3:00 pm at the factory,” she said to me.

The next issue was finance. We had already touched our overdraft limit. Lok uncle still had a landed property and gold ornaments, apart from his home and car as assets. He decided to take a short-term loan on the security of his landed property.

“Lok uncle, I think it’s advisable to pawn a part of the gold,” I suggested. “Landed property is quite different from gold. You know that people normally use their gold for meeting urgent financial requirements. We will start generating profits very soon.”

“Abhi, we had bought the gold to be given as gift at the time of Padma’s marriage,” he explained. “It is Nandi’s dream to see Padma adorned with all her gold jewellery. We want to have Padma married off decently. Using that gold for our business purpose is out of the question. So we have no other choice but to use that landed property of mine.”

It seemed that Padma was quite unaware of her parents’ love for her…and they were quite unaware of her plans. I felt bad that things had come to the point of depending on personal assets for use in the business. I assured Lok uncle that improvement in workers’ productivity would reduce costs.

***

On reaching the office I noticed that I hadn’t worn my belt. Just imagine yourself in formal wear without a belt on. In normal circumstances it would even be ok. But I was due to meet Rad in a few minutes’ time. I looked around. One man in picture was wearing a nice black leather belt. Anto. And I remembered something he had told me.

“Anto, you keep an extra pair of clothes at the office right?” I went upto him and asked.

“Yes.”

“Including accessories?”

He thought for a while, as if he didn’t understand what the word meant. He then nodded in the affirmative. We walked to a corner away from the workers. I looked at him blankly. And then, in one swift move, before he realized it, I unbuckled his belt, removed it from his pant and fastened it around my waist. In between I heard an “Oh my God!” cry from him as he clutched the waist of his pant as if to prevent it from falling. The next moment he ran away, taking long strides, to the office. The past few months’ work and the uncertainty surrounding his job had obviously taken a toll on his health and he must have lost a few kilos of weight.

Rad soon arrived and before long she resumed the work of modifying the layout. I was amazed by her level of commitment. She could have easily postponed the work to the following day, but she insisted on completing her work as soon as possible. I hadn’t anticipated at the time of calling her that her work would be so tough. And she knew that she was not going to be paid for this.

I believed that she was doing all this for me. It’s true that she loved challenges, and the work at Lakshmi was testing her abilities. But there were also other things that were difficult to do, er…like…cooking, cleaning, ironing and other chores which she could learn to do at home. After all, sooner or later she would be married off, and coming from a not so liberal family, it was expected of her to know such chores. Who knows? Maybe she could do these chores at my home…in future.

I was prevented from any further daydreaming when I suddenly noticed the reluctance of a few workers to cooperate with Radha. I thought it was time to do something about the attitude of these bozos. I called Radha away from them and said to her, “Radha, tell Anto to get these things done the way you want them to.” She obliged.

Later, I went over to Anto and first looked at his waistline. Yes, he was wearing another belt alright. A brown one which didn’t match with the color of his shoes.

“You deserve a treat, Mr. Anto,” I said. He looked at his shining black belt on my waist. I tried to distract him with an input. “Uh…you’re doing an excellent job here.”

He smiled in acknowledgement while I continued, “I think we can do it. It looks like things will go our way after all. But there is one aspect we must improve. That is labour relations. We have about fifty workmen here. Creating a relationship with a group of workers is difficult, because relationship is basically one-to-one. Isn’t it?”

Anto nodded in agreement. Yeah…right…one-to-one…I had flicked his belt off and he was near helpless. Obviously, he was cursing me, but it didn’t show on his face. I went on: “It is part of your job to interact with them on a daily basis. You must understand each and every worker’s issues. Then only we will be able to gain their confidence and trust. Focus on this aspect every day. Just like at school, when the teacher pays attention to each student, their individual performances improve. Anto, you too must make a commitment similar to that of the teacher.”

“Abhinav, I had thought about this idea of establishing more rapport with them,” Anto responded. “But I was faced with a dilemma: what if the idea backfired? I had nobody to support this idea. I would be squarely blamed. That’s why I didn’t move forward with it.”

“Don’t worry Anto,” I assured Anto of my support and encouraged him. “Go ahead. I’m with you. I’ll tell Lok uncle about this. He knows the difference which an ideal organization culture can make. We need to gain their trust. This is absolutely essential for our business success. And one more thing…we must do some socializing on an evening. I mean we both should meet up and discuss a few things.”

To this, his entire face broke into a huge grin. He knew what I meant.

***