I reached AAI office well before time today. I even missed my walk (which is very important for me, not for the physical exercise but for the connection with the trees). The person at the reception was rude and uncouth and I did lose my cool for a while. The word ‘reception’ comes from the same family as ‘receive’ and receiving should be warm and welcome. But it has been my experience that the person/s manning the reception booths are mostly rude. I guess the only control they have is over people entering the office premises and the only way to feel powerful therefore, is to make the visitors feel as helpless as possible. To feel good by making others feel bad.
Thereafter the teaching class went well. I understood the positioning of the instruments on the runway and the guidelines for the restrictions on building heights to ensure that their functioning was not disturbed. Even with two cups of coffee, it was a long class (kab tak padna padega). But my ‘fundas’ (short form for fundamentals from our IIT lingo)are clear now and hopefully, we should be able to transform the restrictions on a digital map. The obstacle surfaces are still not very clear (some of them are, some aren’t) and I will need to go tommorrow also for one more lecture ( phir se?). After a few guidelines were discussed and some calculations done, it appeared that the maximum permissible height could only be 175 m whereas the appeal is for 402 m. So I asked the officials for a solution. And they shot back, Madam, aap log to (meaning the powerful and rich real estate clan, surely not me) kuch bhi kara sakte hain. Aap airport he shift kara dijiye. Phir jitni marzi unchi building banaiye. Airport nahin to radar hi shift kara dijiye. I am sure it was said sarcastically but it also reflected the power the real estate guys have on the political and economic landscape of our country.
I have been whining to Appu about how I have not been able to do any real work over the last few days. Exasperated, she finally shortlisted four things for me to finish today and she put it down on a white board in my room. The list included the meeting at AAI, sending 5 mails to potential clients (one of them has already bounced back), asking for a pending payment and discussions with Narendra on the presentation. And the deal was that in case I managed to finish these four jobs, I was not supposed to crib about not doing any work. OK, so I got the four jobs done. Cool. No whining today.
The ‘bank’ called. The red alert is beeping very fast now. We have to clear the TOD (by hook or by crook). The question is ‘how’.
Yeh CEO ka kya chakkar hai. Actually it should be ‘Chief Executive Peon’ or ‘Always available executive (AAE)’ or ‘ Blame us for everything (BUFE)’, actually that is a nice punchline for a T-shirt for CEO’s- Blame us for anything and everything that goes wrong. We have no control (we are just supposed to be in control) over anything. Just like the man appears to be in control in the house but it is the woman who wields the power (from the kitchen from where the food originates). Like me and Appu appear to be the bosses in the house whereas it is Amma (our long time maid) who has real control over everything( including every cup of tea that leaves the kitchen.)
Actually I was never comfortable with titles. When I founded the last company, I had travelled to Pune (on a shoestring budget and therefore had to stay in a very small and dingy hotel) to sign an agreemnt with a Pune based firm. On the last day of the trip when the agreement was being signed( and I was wondering how I would reach the airport on time as I had finished all my money and walking would have ensured that I missed my flight and be stranded with no money and no ticket to travel back), Prof. Krishnayya (the head of the Pune firm) asked me what title I would like to use. I was lost for words as I could think of no heavyweight title for myself. And he said how about ‘Chief officer’? And I said OK. I was never comfortable with heavy titles like ‘MD’ or ‘Director’.So that is how the journey of titles began for me
And now from ‘Chief officer’, it has evolved to ‘Chief Executive Officer’. But the job remains the same. It is mostly that of a sophisticated available peon,manager, executive,punching bag, all rolled into one.
And what a journey it has been.
From CO to CEO.
