Prologue:

I am no Rabindranath Tagore and neither has the literary world gained anything significantly by my outpourings. But I must be thankful for having been bestowed with a lucid sense of expression. Even as I mention with pride, this trait of mine, in the same breath, I also realise that it can be withdrawn unceremoniously too. Thus I wish to write about some of my fellow travelers, who have treaded the path of life alongside me. Initially I wanted to make it chronological, beginning from my child hood . But then I realized it would take away the spontaneity of the expression. So I chose to begin with people who have impacted my life most. These persons have left an indelible mark in my mind.  I do not intend using pseudo names, imagination or deviation from truth. Netizens are welcome with their responses and observations.

AMITAVA CHAKRABORTY

This man popularly known as “Tito” was my colleague during my days with a multi-national bank in Kolkata (1987-1996). In 1987 I was a 21-year old youth, somewhat of a non-conformist, who had landed up with his first job, that too without any recommendation, solely on merit. Just as you would find every third ‘Tambram’ from a middle-class ground, hard work, sincerity and loyalty coupled with a fair bit of intelligence and original thinking were my plus points. In record time, I could make a mark for myself and created a favourable impression amongst both by peers and superiors. Here, I must mention about the broad-mindedness of the Bengali community. They have no qualms in accepting people from other regions and if you are meritorious, you can always make your mark in West-Bengal. I am not so sure about my native Tamilnadu where all sorts of linguistic and caste considerations prevail.

Tito might have been 4-5 my senior. He hailed from Chinsurah and it seems his father was a high-ranking ex-official of the bank. Tito was over 6 ft with the build of an athlete. He was different from the average Bengali Bank Clerk and was burning with ambition. To an average Bengali, his life’s ambition would have been achieved after getting the job with a multi-national bank. Good money on the one hand, Social prestige on the other not to mention the pleasure of living with family and not having to move out. But Tito was different. He wanted to test untried waters. He had a fair command of English and this gave him a stature amongst his peers ,who were tongue-tied, when it came to speaking English.Tito was fairly good at work plus more importantly, used to take part in all the extra-curricular activities of the Bank like “Aabriti”(elocution), Singing and of course sports including Football and cricket and hence very popular. I earned my promotion as an officer, in 5 years time, and I suppose it took about the same time for him. But since he was my senior he got ahead of me.

Subsequently, when I was promoted, I had about 2 years of great professional success. Then I began to be plagued by mental illness and my professional career, was on the downslide. It was at this point of time that I got to interact with Tito on a more personal basis. After my initial successful stint at Chowringhee branch, I was transferred to Gariahat Branch where he was the branch-manner. Now this particular branch was a heavy-traffic branch. It had some high-profile customers. Readers would a do well to bear in mind that Banking, during that phase, was passing through a transitionary stage. Economy was being liberalized and regulations and rules were being relaxed. Cut-throat competition was the order of the day and multinational banks were greedy for super-normal profits. Thus they would not hesitate in pumping in crores of rupees for setting an ATM facility or refurbishing of the branch, but when it came to increasing of man-power they used to crib. But as a management-staff you were not expected to complain. I was (and am) straightforward and called a spade a spade. While my work-place efficiency was unquestionable, this attitude did not go down well with the top management. To add to the misery, mentally I was a disturbed man.

But Tito handled the situation admirably. While there was a requirement of say 6 offices, management would provide only 3. Tito took upon all additional responsibility without grumbling. His personal life was the first casualty. To counter this, he devised his own solution. Every evening, his wife and daughter used to come over to the branch. If you cannot go home timely, bring your family to the work-place. Unknowingly, he had pioneered the home-office concept. He was living close-by only. This was his own way of balancing both professional and personal lives. He used to put in 10-12 hours of non-sop labour. It is not that he knew everything about the nitty gritties of running a branch independently. But he picked up pieces of knowledge along the way. He also did not rub the staff members the wrong the way and as such always had their cooperation. Strictly speaking, he was neither an expert at operations nor marketing nor on the IT front. But managed to learn the basic things, which could keep the branch running. This was in direct contrast to my approach. I always believed that competent person must be at the helm of affairs, for every particular area and that rules are meant to be followed to a T.

A marketing heavy-weight was appointed as the Branch-in-charge, whose main responsibility, was to develop business, by roping in high net-worth individuals. Tito could satisfy him also. He used to have a good dress-sense and was generally an out-going and extrovert kind of person. Since these qualities easily matched the image of Bank-manager of an average person, Tito was immensely liked. He had a good personality and riding a motor-cycle, he used to look great, the dream of every young unmarried girl.

After I resigned from the back in 1996, I came to know that he had also quit this particular foreign bank in favour of another. I met him once there and that was the last I have heard or seen of him. Because of mental illness, I used to attend office irregularly.. This further reduced the already poor man-power at his command (I think there were 3 officers including him, while the need of the hour was at least 6) and put additional pressure on him. On occasions I gave vent to my feelings on him and the management also Yet he would take things on himself. Maybe he had no options!

But I always suspect that he suffered from a split-personality syndrome. Left to himself, he would have just blasted out everything and settled for a peaceful rustic life. A man who had so many passions, who had touched life on so many points, could not have chosen otherwise. Yet he fell prey to his self- created ambition. As a young lad, when he wanted to make his mark in life, he probably had no idea what price he would have to pay- how many of his intrinsic characters had to be shed along the way. Had he known, who knows, he might have settled for the simple yet peaceful life of a clerk. Later in life, he had, probably, reached a stage where even if he had wanted; he could not have done anything, besides what he was doing!

I do not know whether I have been able to communicate what I wanted to. This is no eulogy on a friend. I think there are numerous Titos amongst us, who begin life in real earnest- then go astray; either because of a self-chosen destructive path or because of mis-placed ambitions or because of circumstances and weak will. Which leads us to eternally open question- Who is responsible for our life? IS IT ONLY OURSELEVS? ARE WE DRIVEN or DO WE DRIVE? At least, I do not know the answer as of now.

My dear Tito, wherever you are I wish you all the very best of professional and personal success. I have to be grateful to you for putting up with me, when you could have easily put me down. That was one of the worst phases of my professional and private life. If by any chance, you happen to view this, or come to know about this piece, through someone, the purpose of the article would be served. Know that a friend is waiting with open arms to embrace you.

One final thing- I never learnt how you got your knick-name. Will you please reveal the secret to your beloved Suresh?