A Non IITian Success Story

A M Naik, Chairman and MD, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) 

Success never asks for the certificates given by an institution. It is an inspiring story of Mr A M Naik (See Wikipedia), who struggled to speak in English climbed the top position in L&T, one of the prestigious corporate group of the country. This story by Shyamal Majumdar was published in Business Standard .

Consider what A M Naik has achieved in terms of making Larsen & Toubro (L&T) one of the most respected engineering conglomerates in the country. Now, consider his initial experience at L&T. Apart from the fact that he was not from any of the Indian Institutes of Technology (Naik did his mechanical engineering from Birla Vishvakarma Mahavidyalaya Engineering College in Vallabh Vidyanagar in Gujarat), his poor knowledge of English led him to make seven to eight mistakes in the first employment form he filled.


When he applied to L&T, he got a job, but the company reduced its initial offer by Rs 90 to Rs 670 a month and offered him a lower designation than what it had initially promised — all because the final interviewer thought he was a bit arrogant. Years later, Naik attributes this to a communication gap between him and the Englishman, who was the final interviewer. “I used to think in Gujarati and then translate it into English; the Englishman perhaps misunderstood what I had intended to say,” Naik said.


Naik could have easily given up on the L&T job, but didn’t, just to prove a point. He joined L&T on March 5, 1965, and became the workshop in-charge within one and a half years of joining the company. When he was not even 25, some 800 people reported to him. The rest is all too well known.


By the way title of the article was Opportunity in failures.

The Secret Letters: A Self Help Novel

I never liked reading self help books. I am not a big fan of Robin Sharma. The only book I read earlier was The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. It could not lengthen my favorite book list. Recently I bought two books just for reading it while traveling. First one was The Greatness Guide, turned few pages and closed it. Second one was The Secret Letters of the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. This became the first self help book I read with interest.

Jonathan Landry was in trouble. His life was running as he wished. Julian, the hero of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari was his uncle. To make understand few important aspects of life he sends Jonathan to collect the Talismans and letters from the safe keepers all around the world. Jonathan starts unwillingly. Jonathan learns many lessons in his travel. Finally it ends in Delhi after seeing the Taj Mahal.

I am putting this book in must read again list. This book is more than a self help book and teaches the lesson as you go on reading it like a novel. But one need to stop and read again and again the every letter that Jonathan gets to understand oneself better and for self improvements. The chapter before the letter itself is enough to explain the essence of the letter. Buy read and store this book.

It is v v v Vidya all the way!

Vidya Balan in Kahaani

Time to forget the hot debut of Vidya Balan in Dirty Picture. Now she is a pregnant widow in the kahani(Story) that happens within the movie Kahani, a complete female-centric movie. It is all about Bidya.. Sorry.. V V V V Vidya. Vidya Balan has not just played the role of Bidya Bagchi, she has become Bidya. Vidya Balan and her Kahani hold your attention through out the film without boring for a minute.

Mishap happens in the Kolkota Metro to leave hundreds dead. After two years of that mishap, pregnant Vidya comes from London in search of her missing husband. Everyone tries to convince her that her husband does not exist. She gets the help of earnest cop named Rana. She visits the National Data Center. The HR manager of NDC to which her husband supposed to visit recalls that there was an employee who left the job two years ago exactly looked like her husband. The HR manager is murdered. That makes the intelligence beuro officer arrive in to the scene. Then the story starts taking the turns. Finally she kills
Milind Damji who made that mishap which killed her real husband who was also an intelligence officer and accomplishes her mission. This is a thriller movie and one should watch the  movie to get the thrill of the story

No wonder if Vidya Balan’s performance in this film could get her another National Award. She has taken all the responsibility to run the entire show on her own. Her performance is the major attaction of the filom. Definitely Vidya Balan makes everyone to come out of the Dirty Picture hang out in this Movie. Without a love scene, an item song, not even a dance, Kahani makes Vidya Balan a block buster heroine in Bollywood.

Vidya Balan in Kahaani

I have not taken the loan

The new branch manager was going through the defaulters list. He found a loan that was given eight years back and not even a single rupee was repaid. He took an old file to which a black and white photo of a beautiful girl was attached. It read: Loan for self-employment, Name: Vijaya, Age: 19, Amount: Rs One Lakh. He called his car driver and asked about this customer. Drivers have better knowledge of the bank customer, as he is the only person who is not changed his position from the inspection to recovery in the time span of 10 years. ‘Sir, this girl was given loan for setting up a small shop. Soon she got married and now settled in her husband’s house 150 km away.’ The manager told him to make the car ready by early morning next day.

Unwillingly the driver started moving the car. Manager started chatting with the driver, “Who is this girl who started shop at the age of 19?” The driver began the story. “Sir, I know Vijaya from her childhood. She was an intelligent and innocent girl in her childhood. She finished her 12th with good marks. Her brother who was working in the port was the only breadwinner of her family. He dreamt to make her an officer.” Manager interrupted “then why she took a business loan, we could have given an education loan.” The driver replied “Sir, her bad fate was seemed to be endless. Her brother died in an accident in the port. The port trust gave his family some money. But it could not wipe the tears of her family. She could not continue her education. For her bad luck, a person from a rich family saw her and put a proposal to marry her.”

“Oh come on, I am not getting why she took the loan in between all these”.
“Sir, that greedy people wanted dowry. Vijaya’s parents were not willing to lose an opportunity to build a relationship with the rich family. They thought if they successfully make her daughter, a daughter-in-law of the wealthy family, their responsibility would be over. The amount which they got from the death of their son was not enough for it.”

The manager became uncomfortable and said “So, they took loan for business and made her marriage?”

“Yes sir, her parents already had a small shop and they took this loan in her name. They also promised to repay…. We are near to her house; we have to move few hundred meters in this estate”

An old person of about 60 was sitting in the warrandah of a big old house on old wooden chair. There are around five workers working around him. The manager told ‘Namaskar’. The old man did not even have courtesy to ask him to be seated. The manager himself started, he introduced himself and told the reason why he has come. The old man got angry and called his son. The way his son ran to him, the manager understood he is a slave of his father. He scolded his daughter in law. And called her out using all the bad words he can. Vijaya appeared and stood nervously.

It was not tough to make it out the tortures he was withstanding by looking at her face. Her innocent face in the photo attached to documents has now filled with helplessness. When asked, she told to her father in law “I never took any loan. I went to the bank only once to take Rs 1 lakh that was kept by my brother in bank for my marriage. That time I gave this photo” She did not even know that she had taken loan. Her parents had fooled her. To answer why, her parents are no more. Then manager tried to convince the old man that it was taken for marriage and requested him to repay the loan on behalf of her daughter-in-law. The old man was not even ready to listen.

The old man shouted at the manager “You have given loan to her. You can take it back from her. Even if you want to take her with you, I have no objection. But I won’t pay you even a single Rupee. You can take whatever the legal action you would like to. If you don’t have money to put a case on her, I will donate that much to your bank. File a suit in the court and publish in newspapers. Let her face this alone or else commit suicide. If she commits suicide because of you bankers I am glad and ready to bring another rich wife to my son. You can leave now.”

There was not a single word spoken in the car while returning. The manager was thinking there was wonder if the old man kills her and projects it as a suicide.

Next day local newspaper reported: ‘Woman Commits Suicide Due to Heavy Debt’

Big Bakra of Big Bazar

Big Bazar Great Exchange Offer

A fat lady wearing posh saree entered the Mall with an old damaged bag. It was obviously some mismatch between the how she looked and the bag she was carrying. She walked to the Big Bazar counter; instead of baggage counter she gave the bag to the person sitting in front of a computer in between the old useless household materials. He opened the bag and counted old clothes, shoes, and few books, then printed and gave her a voucher. It raised my eyebrow and I saw a board “Exchange Offer!” Exchange anything for extra 25% off. I have never seen Big Bazar doing any charity by taking your old jeans for Rs 300 or a kg of Newspaper for Rs 30 and give you something new. Kishor Biyani can never be a fool. Conditions obviously apply. The only question was what are those stars making us blind?

First I should tell how an exchange offer should work. One has an old Alto a/c car. Now he wants to buy a new Swift. He visits True Value shop. After negotiation he agrees for exchange at a price say Rs 2 lakh. This amount plus bonus if any will be deducted from the new car price say Rs 5 lakhs and he pays only Rs 3 lakhs to drive the car home. They never tell you to buy car with the price tag Rs 8.00 lakhs to get the benefit of Rs 2 lakhs so that the amount reduced does not exceed 25%.

Come back to Big Bazar. The lady exchanged the old jeans for an exchange voucher of Rs 300. To get the complete benefit she has to make the bill worth Rs 1200. Only then bill amount will be reduced to Rs 900. That means she got 25% discount. This is the maximum benefit scenario. What if she buys an item worth Rs 600? She will get a discount of 25% or Rs 150 only. To get the full benefits she fills her kart. She can’t make it exact Rs 1200. It becomes Rs1500. Then She doesn’t get 25% off, it will be Rs 300 only, i.e. 20%. Also, not all the items are under the 25% off offer, this is the maximum discount offered by them. If she had done a five-minute pre purchase research I can bet this same material would have cost less than this at some other shop. She lost old jeans and spent few bugs for this exchange offer. She ended up in purchasing 4 times the value of her old stuffs as evaluated by the Big Bazar in their convenience, without a second thought whether she is in need of what she is buying.

Congrats, Big Bakra of Big Bazar.