Delhi was bitterly cold this Monday.
It brought memories of other visits to the city, other winters, rum and coke sessions with colleagues and friends at the Jaipur Inn and Ambassador Hotel, the company guest house in Jor Bagh..And Ranjith Hotel, how can I forget Ranjith Hotel? I don't think it exists now.
Krishnan could not be called a friend of course, even though he was one, certainly. He was at least ten years my senior and respected as such. Krishnan swigs his drink in my room in Ranjith and complains in high falsetto how the company has gone to the dogs now. How it was better when the European bosses ruled.
And then, he takes me to his house in Karol Bagh and treats me to a delicious Kerala meal.
Years later, when I met him, he looked gaunt and tired. He had left the company by then, of course. He told me how he suffered a heart attack while driving. He drove with the pain to the hospital and the doctors told him that was a stupid thing to do and he was lucky to be alive.
Krishnan died three years ago. Funny, I started out writing about Delhi, but it became a kind of note on Krishnan. Ah! Well!
About Me
- Rada
- They say Cancerians are crabs, constantly side-stepping issues. Well...Maybe. I don't know. What I do know about myself is that I love Reading, Writing, Going for long walks, Travel, Cinema, Music and host of other things. I tend to prefer the company of young people, because they are usually full of good ideas. They also prevent you from being cynical.
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Stepping Sideways... by K. Radhakrishnan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
3 comments:
Chets,
Great idea about the blog. Shall follow with great expectations/trepidation (did i spell that right?)
Can identify with the Krishnan's of the world. May their tribe increase for the company in hotel rooms and decline for complaints in high falsetto :)
- Avinash
I remeber Krishnan well and good fortune of interacting with his proper administrative methods which at times irked my colleauges but difficult to put away or "Stepping Sideways". I too has good fortune of travelling to delhi with him on my first "ModiLuft" flight. What a relief from IA regime. It was cold morning in Feb-95 and the best possible person with us was the Torben Soderberg and the ease with which KRISH handled the day was examplarery. The corporate world do need this culture otherwise I feel that human worth will be stepping sideways for the ruthless gloss...
Martin, is all time bestof Mahindra Building at Ballard estate! first half he works and the second half he is drunk still sober to walk his way. There are still people whom you can remeber during the beginning of MSL with out the Danes. Then Mohamed the watch man who doubles up as lift man too. It is a popular joke when Mohamad caught a thief and was getting him down from 3 rd floor. at the basement the thief said he forgot his shoes on the 3rd floor. So mohamad told the thief to wait at the Ground floor and he would get his shoes. Now am not sure if Mohamad is allive or not . but was told he is still in search of that thief!
MNK / PNK / RRK / so on and so forth what a glorious time we had. Proffosor Prayagi , Guther Witish , of course of MSL! Yes Jaipur Inn one of the best place to stay after we moved out of Ranjit.
All Danes got Nick from us and we christianed them well!
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