Back To The Future III

Aug 18 2019

A lot of water has flown under the bridge the past few years. I sometimes wonder that if I was not goaded by Jaggu , would I have consented to the course at Administrative Staff College of India? In all probably not ... I would not have met the wonderful Faculty - and more importantly my course mates - who were on the same retirement boat as I was . They were also looking to transition into civil organization as I was.

 Four years earlier , in November2015 we had successfully completed six months of business management. One person who was doing the course with us at that time was Prasad. Hailing from Nizamabad he took the difficult route to becoming an officer in the Services. What struck me from the beginning was his clarity of thought and ability to simplify and solve complex problems . It was ingrained in his DNA. He knew no other way except the direct way. He was an expert linguist and used to burst into couplets , both in telugu and Sanskrit with equal ease. He used to tell us stories as to how his teachers in school believed in the adage do not spare the rod or you will spoil the child. To avoid getting thrashed he used to recite poetry by rote at school. As he grew in age his love for poetry grew and he started reading and assimilating it for the pure joy of the experience." Give me a telugu literature book and I do not require anything else " , he used to say..."Whatever you do - do it cheerfully and with conviction" was another of his favourite sayings,

 As a youngster , on a bet he stopped drinking - believe it or not - tea and coffee for 10 days. After all these years he still does not drink any beverages. On completion of the course he used to say that he would not like to be under anyone's thumb. "I am a man who was self made and intend remaining so". Prasad was excellent at making friends. Unlike others he went out of his way to befriend someone or the other - atleast one person a day. That the person was of inferior economic means and did not deserve overt approaches of friendship did not matter to him. Like an Alcoholic who could not do without a drink, he could not do without friends. It was his avowed wish to be happy and cheerful and this manifested in his spreading sunshine wherever he went.

He went into action after completion of the business Management course at administrative Staff college. True to his beliefs he decided to go into transport business.( What an unimaginative Idea - one would be forced to say). The difference was that he brought all his learning at ASCI into play. He contemptuously rejected all attempts at being recruited.  Immediately on retirement with the corpus he gained from the retirement, he spent a part on buying three buses and outsourced them to a reputed school. Part of his retirement benefits he invested in the stock market and balance he kept for a rainy day. " The gut feeling in which stocks to invest plays a big part in how I invest in the market", he used to say. Systematically he made profits in the stock market never overplaying his hand. The profits he gained he put it all in the transport business - always in school buses. At an early point post retirement he realised that educational institutions wanted no headache of having a fleet of buses to look after and then there was always the problem of looking after the human element and their welfare. He took on these problems of the schools gladly and ensured delivery of children safely to schools and back to home.

His human relations have paid dividends and all his employees are fiercely loyal to him . His innovative approach has reaped rich rewards . Today he is planning to open branches of PRASAD SCHOOL BUS SERVICE in other states. We wish him all the success.

Present

Today's class by Prof Bilolikar was on business research. There was none of the tentativeness , which characterised his first class last week. The class was precise , upto the point and we were benefited from the class. Hopefully it will stand us in good stead in the future....