Of late, for some reason or the other Canada has been central in our discussions at home.What we have been discussing is not relevant to this post. However, what they did is to bring Canada back to sharp focus in my mind, for all the wrong reasons!!
Long years ago (do I sound like Nehru?), Canada had featured in a piece of conversation between a fellow manager in our company and I. I realise that, after reading about it, you will refuse to believe what I have written and dismiss me as an old gas bag! Please be assured that this anecdote is just another gem from my collection of many hilarious experiences gathered in the course of my 31 years of association with Bata India Limited. By the way, I solemnly affirm the authenticity of the story.
It was a rainy day in 1975. The car park in front of the factory leading on to the reception area, was already under ankle-deep water. My concern was that the time was a few minutes short of 12 noon, at which hour the siren would sound and we would have to leave for lunch by wading through the water. The top-management team was also worried, although for different reasons. At any moment His Excellency, the Canadian High Commissioner to India, would arrive. In fact, because of the widespread rain, his mini-motorcade had already got hopelessly delayed. To add to the woes the factory had got completely inundated. A VVIP visit in those conditions was not the easiest thing to manage!
At about 5mins to noon, there was a warning call from the Gate Office to say that the High Commissioner's car was about to enter the factory. In those days I used to work in the Accounts Department of the company which was lodged in the Administrative Block occupying the entire frontage of the building. As the VVIP entered the premises, we, quite naturally, jostled for vantage positions near the windows to satisfy our zoological interest in him. Our Pay-roll Manager was next to me as we all tried to catch a glimpse of the Diplomat. It was this lucky configuration of peering individuals that gave rise to this gem of an experience I want to share with you.
The Pay-roll Manager was one of the veterans of the organization. He had worked himself up the ladder from the employee ranks and had finished up in the managerial grade through sheer hard work. Although he had mastered the art of pay-roll preparation, he, like his many other colleagues, was not the possessor of formal college degrees. As a result of this he and his ilk grudgingly considered us - the management trainee types - to be a little better informed than them, which was not very far from the truth, in any case.
And so it happened that on this rainy mid-day in Faridabad Mr. Pay-roll quietly asked me in Hindi as to which country this visiting " minister" belonged to. With an effort at maintaining a straight face I informed him that the visiting gentleman was not a minister but was in fact the High Commissioner for Canada to India. At this he wondered what could possibly be the latter's interest in a shoe factory. I commented that perhaps due to the fact that ours was a Canadian company he may have evinced some interest in seeing our operations and familiarising himself with Canadian business interests in India, especially since Mr. Thomas J. Bata, Chairman of the Board of the global Bata Shoe Organization, himself was the Chairman of the Canada India Business Convention also.
Mr. Pay-roll was puzzled. He had learnt from his predecessors that the founding father of our organization Mr. Thomas Bata had started operations in Zlin in Czechoslovakia back in 1894. He also knew that many of the original expatriate managers of Bata India had been Czechs. Besides this, he was also familiar with certain Czech words that are used till this day in the official company jargon. However, during his extended tenure with the company one fact that seemed to have by-passed him was that Mr. Thomas J. Bata had shifted operations of the global organization to Toronto at the onset of the Second World War after severing all ties with nations behind the "iron curtain", and that, as a result, ours was very much a Canadian organization!
To a simple mind, unnecessary complications are highly unwelcome. Mr. Pay-roll had grown with the organization knowing that it was Czechoslovakian in origin. and Czechoslovakian it had to stay.That was sacrosanct. All the talk of Canada - pronounced Kenarha - was so much bilge. Still, the introduction of this new "Canada" theme needed to be thought out. One realisation did strike him forcefully. That is why he turned towards me and wondered aloud - in Hindi - "So Canada is in Czrchoslovakia?"
Long years ago (do I sound like Nehru?), Canada had featured in a piece of conversation between a fellow manager in our company and I. I realise that, after reading about it, you will refuse to believe what I have written and dismiss me as an old gas bag! Please be assured that this anecdote is just another gem from my collection of many hilarious experiences gathered in the course of my 31 years of association with Bata India Limited. By the way, I solemnly affirm the authenticity of the story.
It was a rainy day in 1975. The car park in front of the factory leading on to the reception area, was already under ankle-deep water. My concern was that the time was a few minutes short of 12 noon, at which hour the siren would sound and we would have to leave for lunch by wading through the water. The top-management team was also worried, although for different reasons. At any moment His Excellency, the Canadian High Commissioner to India, would arrive. In fact, because of the widespread rain, his mini-motorcade had already got hopelessly delayed. To add to the woes the factory had got completely inundated. A VVIP visit in those conditions was not the easiest thing to manage!
At about 5mins to noon, there was a warning call from the Gate Office to say that the High Commissioner's car was about to enter the factory. In those days I used to work in the Accounts Department of the company which was lodged in the Administrative Block occupying the entire frontage of the building. As the VVIP entered the premises, we, quite naturally, jostled for vantage positions near the windows to satisfy our zoological interest in him. Our Pay-roll Manager was next to me as we all tried to catch a glimpse of the Diplomat. It was this lucky configuration of peering individuals that gave rise to this gem of an experience I want to share with you.
The Pay-roll Manager was one of the veterans of the organization. He had worked himself up the ladder from the employee ranks and had finished up in the managerial grade through sheer hard work. Although he had mastered the art of pay-roll preparation, he, like his many other colleagues, was not the possessor of formal college degrees. As a result of this he and his ilk grudgingly considered us - the management trainee types - to be a little better informed than them, which was not very far from the truth, in any case.
And so it happened that on this rainy mid-day in Faridabad Mr. Pay-roll quietly asked me in Hindi as to which country this visiting " minister" belonged to. With an effort at maintaining a straight face I informed him that the visiting gentleman was not a minister but was in fact the High Commissioner for Canada to India. At this he wondered what could possibly be the latter's interest in a shoe factory. I commented that perhaps due to the fact that ours was a Canadian company he may have evinced some interest in seeing our operations and familiarising himself with Canadian business interests in India, especially since Mr. Thomas J. Bata, Chairman of the Board of the global Bata Shoe Organization, himself was the Chairman of the Canada India Business Convention also.
Mr. Pay-roll was puzzled. He had learnt from his predecessors that the founding father of our organization Mr. Thomas Bata had started operations in Zlin in Czechoslovakia back in 1894. He also knew that many of the original expatriate managers of Bata India had been Czechs. Besides this, he was also familiar with certain Czech words that are used till this day in the official company jargon. However, during his extended tenure with the company one fact that seemed to have by-passed him was that Mr. Thomas J. Bata had shifted operations of the global organization to Toronto at the onset of the Second World War after severing all ties with nations behind the "iron curtain", and that, as a result, ours was very much a Canadian organization!
To a simple mind, unnecessary complications are highly unwelcome. Mr. Pay-roll had grown with the organization knowing that it was Czechoslovakian in origin. and Czechoslovakian it had to stay.That was sacrosanct. All the talk of Canada - pronounced Kenarha - was so much bilge. Still, the introduction of this new "Canada" theme needed to be thought out. One realisation did strike him forcefully. That is why he turned towards me and wondered aloud - in Hindi - "So Canada is in Czrchoslovakia?"
Long time since I heard this gem. By the way, you speak of a person not privileged enough to get a college education. A classmate in second year college had once very confidently announced in the classroom that Egypt was in Europe!
ReplyDeleteI love it! Too good
ReplyDeleteFor one, I believe it totally.
Like some poor ignorant fool kept insisting to the Rock that he was going to Rome and not Italy!
ReplyDelete