Management lessons from my Father

Yesterday I had to take a day off to visit my Father’s last day at his office. My father is a Revenue Supervisor with the Tamilnadu Electricity Board.

A little background could help to set the for what I am about to tell........ He finished his PUC and his father was not able to educate him anymore as they were trying hard to make ends meet in a family of 7. So my father decided to take up a job. With just a PUC certificate all he could conjure up immediately was a helper job in a pillar erecting contract with TNEB. He earned a paltry sum of Rs3/- a day and he was 15. One fine day an Assistant Engineer wanted someone to write him an application/petition for some official purpose and my father volunteered. He has a neat and legible handwriting and that got him a job as a helper in the office. And thereafter he took many accountancy exams and slowly grew in grade and today he is retiring as a revenue supervisor at the age of 58 with a salary of 7k per month.

So the valedictory function was thick with sentiments and little pastry arranged as a formality. Its a typical Govt function and people first thanked an entire army of officials for giving a chance to speak and then spoke about my father. I was witnessing all this in the front chair.

Everyone spoke about my dad’s charisma, his personality and his character. All of these I have been witnessing ever since my kindergarden days.

1. My dad wakes up at 4am everyday, has his morning bath, and is all set to catch the 5:45 train. I have never seen him missing the train nor running with a wrinkled shirt.

2. He makes it a habit to wear an entire 3 lane patch of sandalwood on his forehead. He addresses everyone with an ever friendly ‘Nanba’ which means ‘Dear Friend’ be it on phone or in person. And people are instantly attached to him

3. As many people spoke about him, he embraces difficulties with a charm. He never complains about his work, never complains about hierarchy, he just does his job RIGHT. That was his goal for the last 37 years and he did do sheer justice with utmost commitment

4. Life has taken him through difficult patches and he survived through all of them mainly because of his conviction and of course Talent. I always awe at his speed and precision in analytical and maths skills.

5. Life is beautiful and make sure that your presence makes others happy. My dad’s mantra at office.

I can pick more qualities and instances of his 40 years of life. But what I witnessed was a good appreciation of his dedication to his job. At the end I requested for a minute to speak about him and finished with this bharathiyar’s poem(a famous bold tamil poet in the last century):

” Thedi chori nitham thindru pala chinnan chiru kathaigal pesi, manam vaadi thunbam miga ulandru, pirar vaada pala seyalgal seithu, narai koodi kizha paruva meithi, kodung kootrukku iraiena pinmaayum, pala vedikai manitharai pole naan veezhven endru ninaithayo parasakthi”

and that translates into: ” Searching food to quell my hunger everday, Gossiping small talks every moment, Distressed mind coupled with despair, Planning actions to bring misery for others, Greying and growing old, Reaching life’s end as granted, They shall be the path of comic people No, Not for me, Never, dear Lord Parasakthi!”

That may be a poor translation, but that summed up dear dad’s life. Dad is the first hero for a child and I feel it still as a 32 year child to my dad. Missing my mom would be a BIG mistake. She accepted him as he was, was there all thru his days and happliy received him at home(with a bouquet! and tears!). It was so touching but felt so good to have been born in such a nice family.

In this age of management aura everywhere with thick volumes and hundreds of seminars happening everyday on PMI and such, I really felt to have attended a great function that taught me more and that person was my dad.