Funeral of Hoshiyar Sinh became a big affair- beyond anyone’s imagination. He had died while in office of the biggest unit of the conglomerate called Brite Corporation International Limited. Brite Corporation International Limited was still like a family owned organization despite its phenomenal growth and size. When Hoshiyar Sinh died, he held the position of the president of the unit of Brite Corporation and also held an additional responsibility of the department of corporate affairs of the head quarters of the company. The chairman of the company Dhanichand Boman and his son Ajinkya Boman who was the managing director of the company decided to join the funeral procession of Hoshiyar Sinh.
This was seen quite a departure from the usual protocol. And that’s what made funeral of Hoshiyar Sinh a big affair. Normally the family members who promoted and literally owned the company never attended the funeral of any professional employee of the company howsoever highly placed the dead person might have been in the company. Now, Dhanichand Boman and his son Ajinkya Boman who were the senior most members of Boman family- the promoters of the company, were themselves attending the funeral of Hoshiyar Sinh and it was absolutely unusual. Hoshiyar Sinh was a professional manager and had no relationship with Boman family. Therefore, everyone in the company was astonished.
But one employee named Tariq Doshi- an old employee of the unit was not at all surprised. While majority of the employees were new and young in this unit and almost everyone of the old employees had either retired or died, Tariq Doshi had been with the company for past more than thirty years. He had joined the company when the company had just started and had just about one small manufacturing unit. At that time he was working in company’s headquarters. After the company grew and had launched this second and the biggest unit of the company he was transferred. He claimed to have seen the entire history of the ups and ups of the company. And he also knew a few inner secrets. And one of them was the reason why Dhanichand Boman and his son Ajinkya Boman had attended Hoshiyar Sinh’s funeral.
When Tariq Doshi returned to his home after attending the funeral, he was in a very pensive mood. It did not go un-noticed by his wife. She coaxed him to release his tension by sharing his worries with her. And Tariq Doshi finally shared with his wife that one secret that was disturbing him throughout the day and even during the past many years.
He said to his wife, “I have been carrying a huge burden on my mind all these years. But with the death of Hoshiyar Sinh, I can share it with someone and unburden myself so that when the death comes to me, I can die peacefully. But, please keep this to yourself and only if you promise to do so, I will tell you, otherwise not.”
His wife was very worried about her husband particularly after listening to what her husband had just told her. So she assured him, “I promise not to divulge a word of what you are about to tell me. But do tell me everything so that you are free of your worries.”
Then Tariq Doshi narrated the following story to his wife:
Dhanichand Boman was a highly ambitious person despite the fact that he could not go past the primary school education because of the dire poverty of his father. He needed to work and earn money. So he left studying at school. Since he was educated only till primary school, it was impossible for him to get any decent employment other than that of a menial laborer. A few times he suffered utter humiliation while on the job. And when he could not bear anymore humiliation, he decided to start his own business howsoever small it might be. He thought, “After all in my own business I would be my own master and will save myself of any humiliation from any Tom, Dick and Harry.”
He also thought, “I will get more opportunities for business in a city rather than in my own village. So I must move to a big city.” So, he moved to the nearest city from his village along with his wife, his small son Ajinkya and Hoshiyar Sinh- his best friend in the village. Hoshiyar Sinh was also a dropout of the primary school just like Dhanichand.
After going to the city, Dhanichand tried his hand at many types of small businesses using his native wisdom. He knew how to count money and how to count the profits. He also took risks; he had nothing to lose since he was already at the bottom most levels of life. And yes, Dhanichand was a very hard-working man and soon he also learnt the street smartness while doing many odd businesses. With this kind of combination of his traits, he met with success in every business he took up. It took him some ten to twelve years before he could save enough money. On the strength of the saved money, he borrowed more money and built up his first unit- a small manufacturing unit.
Soon his first unit made him a mini industrialist in his own right. He thought of becoming a bigger industrialist and soon he expanded the operations and his products became very popular with the customers. He soon developed the brand name and listed his company as a limited company. The share value of the stocks of his company in the stock market was progressively going up.
On the home front too Dhanichand was quite successful. With the newfound wealth, he was providing his son and his wife all the comforts of life. He enrolled his son Ajinkya in city’s most reputed school and then in the most reputed college. He pampered his son like nobody’s business. Now, his son was almost getting ready to join his business. And one fine morning Ajinkya Boman was installed as the managing director of the company.
Hoshiyar Sinh, Dhanichand’s friend from the village who accompanied him to the city proved to be great help to him in his various businesses. Hoshiyar Sinh was like his man Friday. He was there everywhere with Dhanichand, doing all kinds of odd jobs for him. However, as Dhanichand started flourishing in his business he started keeping distance from Hoshiyar Sinh. Though he still used him for all the odd jobs, his friendship became lukewarm. Hoshiyar Sinh sensed this change. While Dhanichand started becoming richer and richer and prided himself as the chairman of the company, Hoshiyar Singh was given just about a decent salary without any particular title in the company. Hoshiyar Sinh felt hurt by this treatment.
And then that incident took place that catapulted Hoshiyar Sinh’s life and the lives of Dhanichand and Ajinkya topsy-turvy. I know it because I was the only eye witness to the entire happening. I was watching through the peephole of the room where the incident took place.
It took place in Ajinkya Boman’s cabin. Since I had joined the company at its inception, the Bomans knew me quite well and I had an easy access to their offices. So, for some official work I had gone to Ajinkya Boman’s office. When I reached the door of the cabin of Ajinkya Boman, I heard heated exchange of words between some people inside the cabin. My curiosity got aroused and I looked through the peephole.
The overdose of pampering of Ajinkya by his father Dhanichand had made him a spoilt brat. In the process, Ajinkya had become an angry young man- he was short-tempered and shouted and insulted the employees for their small little mistakes. He used to throw the files or anything that was handy at them in the rage of anger. He was a poor listener and non-tolerant of people in general.
Knowing this weakness of his son, Dhanichand had deputed his mature friend Hoshiyar Sinh as his son’s assistant like a private secretary to him. But Ajinkya would not spare Hoshiyar Sinh also. Getting insults from Ajinkya and feeling distanced from Dhanichand, Hoshiyar Sinh was a very unhappy man.
Yes, coming back to what I saw through the peephole. I saw Ajinkya shouting at an employee, “Your irresponsible actions have resulted in loss by millions to the company, do you understand? You must die in shame.”
The employee being shouted upon protested, “Sir, you cannot blame me. You only instructed me to do what I did.”
Ajinkya got wild on him, “Hey, you liar. Don’t say that again. I can even kill you for that.”
And then Ajinkya was groping to search something that he wanted to throw at the employee. He did not realize that what came in his hand was a knife and he threw it at the employee with great force. It hit the employee at some delicate part of the body and the employee fell down and soon breathed his last.
That startled Ajinkya and Hoshiyar Sinh and me. Then I heard the voice of Hoshiyar Sinh. Hoshiyar Sinh was present in Ajinkya's office when this mishap took place.
Hoshiyar Sinh took the lead and said, “Ajinkya, just sit down. Don’t move. Let us sort this thing out with a cool mind. First of all I am the only witness to this bloody affair. I can ruin your and your father’s life just the way you have ruined mine by neglecting me and insulting me. You guys have become rich by my support and hard work at all the odd jobs that your father and you could not have done. But what did I get in return- a meager salary and no designation. Now is the time to strike a deal. I am used to all the odd jobs and I will do this last one too. But on my terms and conditions. You guys are going to launch the new unit in the near future, your big second manufacturing unit. You must make me incharge of that unit as its president after I come out of the jail. I am willing to take the blame of what happened in this room. You will be a witness in the court proceedings to say that it was an accident in the self-defense. To save ourselves from the insane employee who wanted to hurt us, I intervened and by sheer accident the knife went through the body of the employee causing him instant death. For that I will get the jail sentence of not more than couple of years. After I am released from the jail, you and your father will install me as the president of the new unit with all the powers bestowed in me. If you agree, I will call the police and surrender myself and you and your father will make sure that the best lawyer is recruited to handle the case and I get the minimum sentence. If you do not agree with this proposal of mine, I will still call the police and charge you with the murder.”
And then the rest we know. Hoshiyar Sinh made sure that he became the president of the biggest unit of the company. Many more units were added to the company later on but Hoshiyar Sinh took care to see that his unit remained the biggest and he had a say in the corporate affairs of the company by becoming head of corporate affairs department in the head quarters in addition to becoming the president of the biggest unit.
His death took away with him the secret that Dhanichand and Ajinkya think only Hoshiyar Sinh knew. So, Dhanichand and Ajinkya wanted to be sure that Hoshiyar Sinh really got cremated in front of their eyes along with that secret and that’s why they attended the funeral of Hoshiyar Sinh.
Related Books
1. "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" (available from Amazon, get it online as a paperback or an eBook)
Read many more management anecdotes/management case studies in the eminent author Shyam Bhatawdekar's best selling book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" available online from Amazon as an eBook as well as a printed book.
2. "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Volume 2)" (available from Amazon, get it online as a paperback or an eBook)
Read many more management anecdotes/management case studies in the eminent author Shyam Bhatawdekar's best selling book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Volume 2)" available online from Amazon as an eBook as well as a printed book.
Other Related Reading
For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/
(Also, refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)
For “out of box thinking” articles by Shyam Bhatawdekar, refer: (Out of Box Ideas) http://wow-idea.blogspot.com/
Read other blogs of Shyam Bhatawdekar at: (Home Page for Writings of Shyam Bhatawdekar) http://writings-of-shyam.blogspot.com
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