As I was entering my office I got
a call from my colleague Prasad. Do you know that Narendra Babu has quit – he enquiringly
declared with a bit of astonishment. Babu was indeed a hardcore org-person. Had
joined the company as a fresher and loved the product that he had seen grow
from a single client to 200 clients today. He would be the last person to quit,
we all thought. And Prasad added – you know
Krishnan started reporting to him just about a fortnight back. Now, that was a
piece of high-end analytics.
Suddenly I recalled the
conversation that I had with AP Krishnan some 3 years back. I had just been given the charge of a new
department carved out and APK was one of the first to join the team. He had
been an old timer with some 20+ years of experience but was a difficult guy to
handle – at least that was what I had heard about him, though had never got a
chance to work with him.
During our first conversation,
APK was briefing me about the work done by him over the past 20 years and listed
out all the Managers that he had worked with. And then, with an impish smile he
asked me – do you know what is common across this list? I thought for a moment
and said – I think all of them have left the organization now. And with the same
mischief in his eyes he added – some of them not in the best of circumstances. I
was taken aback by that menacingly honest introduction of APK. But I was badly
in need of a Program Manager in my team so just ignored that as a friendly banter.
And APK’s reputation as a strong Program Manager was overpowering enough to allay
all other concerns at that point.
Two years later, I was in a
situation when one of the programs handled by Krishnan was in trouble. And my
new boss was livid. I was given an ultimatum that if the situation was not in
control in 2-weeks’ time, I should look for a job. One of those evenings, we
were sitting in a shanty bar in Mumbai, with a mug of beer in hand, discussing
the strategy with APK for the set of problems in hand. For the first time, I could
see APK feeling helpless and frustrated at the unending deluge of problems. I suddenly recollected our first conversation.
I felt like a wounded soldier on the hospital bed. Despite a valiant fight, the
end appeared so near. A good two months
had passed since that late night call I had with my boss, putting money on my
head. The situation had improved but not completely in control.
That night I could not sleep. Within
an hour into my sleep I got up sweating. It was a bad dream. I was standing all
alone in that big conference room of this client Bank, where large framed
portraits of all their past MDs used to hang across the four walls. But what I saw
in that dream was all the past Managers of APK smiling at me from those large
portraits and there was one blank frame staring at me. And I knew the end was
close. It was my turn now.
Next day, I entered the Bank and
went straight into the room given to us for the project work. My eyes were red
as I had not been able to sleep the whole night. To my surprise APK was already
there – he normally used to come after I had settled in. He too appeared a bit haggard. And after a short exchange of pleasantries, he
said, in all seriousness, that he had decided to go on a sabbatical for one
year. The reason of course was not the travails of this project but something
personal. I tried to reason it out with him but he had made up his mind on
that.
As both of us got busy with our
work in the morning, this sudden development kept pounding my mind. Is he
really serious? Is there really a personal reason? Will this save him from
losing his job? Or both our jobs for that matter? And that famous Bollywood dialogue
came to my mind. Gabbar ke taap se tumhe
sirf ek hi aadmi bacha sakta hai… Khud Gabbar.
And now, when APK joined back
after one-year sabbatical, he started reporting to Narendra Babu. Prasad was
perhaps hinting at this when he said that APK had just started reporting to Babu.
Or did he genuinely mean that Babu’s team would be dismantled so APK would be
available again for us to consider for one of our projects.
