Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida
Out of the blue, Hella India Managing Director Ramashankar Pandey called over the weekend to ask: "How can we help truck drivers to gain respectability in the society?"
What happened to Ram? I know his passion for road safety. But drivers' respectability? I was flummoxed truly.
An issue close to my heart. As we say in my mother tongue: karumbu thinna cooliya? (Nobody asks for a fee to enjoy sugarcane).
The telephonic conversation dragged on for 15 minutes.
I realized that the Madhubani-born, mid-forties German lighting giant supremo in India, is not bullshitting but has something in mind. At a time when Bihar, among other cow belt states, is burning over the Agnipath Recruitment Scheme of the government, this engineering-cum-management practitioner from the same Bihar, is helping me to focus on something serious. Even trucks are torched by the so-called educated lumpen elements.
Such critical issues need face-to-face interaction and no zoom meeting would do justice. The hitch was we were separated by 70km one way: Ram in Dwarka and me in Greater Noida. Nothing less than a two-hour journey one way for this physical handshake and meeting of minds.
"It does not matter. Let us meet. Share your location," he cooed over the Graham Bell invention.
Will the Hella India boss drive on a Sunday to discuss "what should be done to help truck drivers to gain respectability"?
Sheer coincidence that a friend from Kolkota with logistics background called up a few hours before Ram's phone call to ask: have you read the "researched, well-documented piece by an IAS babu in the Hindu Business Line." I did and nothing new he said. Research on truck driving in India is a regular feature. How do I know? Over the past 13 years, most of the researchers on this "interesting topic" have knocked on my doors seeking my "inputs".
A month ago, a reputed research agency funded by global financial institutions, sought my inputs on the driver angle. A week ago, another logistics domain expert requested a meeting with a friend of his - a pharma MNC logistics honcho - who is preparing for a PhD on, yes, you got it! - truck driver issue.
Back to Hella Ram. Ten minutes before Rahukal on Sunday (the 90-minute inauspicious period to begin or commence anything: 1630 to 1800 hours), he pinged: "Left Dwarka" and shared his live location via WA.
Still, I was not sure. Maybe he has some other engagement in my part of town and possibly he is clubbing a visit to my home to discuss the topic we interacted with earlier.
Every half an hour, I checked the live location and convinced he was on the "right track".
Half-past six, he alighted from his chauffeur-driven SUV outside my housing society.
"Oh my God! Now I understand why I refuse invites for physical meeting in Gurgaon!"
True. Unless the invitee/host is ready to cough up Rs.2000 towards petrol (just a few rupees below Rs.100/litre), I decline such invites.
Over the next hour and a half, we were in "chai pe charcha".
Yes, Ram was serious. Otherwise, he would not have driven from one end of NCR to another on a Sunday.
What we discussed? Await.
(To be continued)
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