Thank You, Kindness in Humans ! I am who I am today because of you. - Part 1

Thank You, Kindness ! Thanks to so many people without whose kindness or advice I would not have been who I am today.

Why am I writing my 2nd blog after 8 years on kindness ? I have been thinking of this ever since I came to Lagos. I was overwhelmed by the kindness of people who even do not know me to make my life comfortable in Lagos.  Then, it occurred that so many people impacted my life with little acts of kindness at crucial stages and they are all responsible for my current state. This is significant for someone who was born in a lower middle class family with negative networth (monetary terms).

Let me try to recall kind people who impacted me at various stages of my life.

I was told my mother was in hospital when I was born. Many relatives in Vakkalagadda reminisce whenever they see me and tell me stories of how they took care of me and worried about me during my infant days. 

I knew good English by the time I left my Telugu medium Govt school thanks to my teacher - Lakshmi Das garu. I was lucky that he moved to my village and rented my uncle's place. I just started learning English in school in my 5th Std. I requested shyly whether he would teach me English. He immediately accepted and started coaching me - Grammar, precis writing etc. 

I never bought text books during my school days thanks to my cousin brother Balaram. He was just one standard ahead of me. He maintains his books so well that they look new after one year ! 

Many of my schoolmates used to think that Hindi is very difficult to learn. But, I always found it easy and scored district first in SSC, thanks to my teacher - Kamla Devi garu. She encouraged me to study 'Dakshina Bharata Hindi Prachar  Sabha' courses and I got 'Rashtra Basha' certificate too which made my life easy in school.  

I used to read lot of fiction (Telugu novels) in my school days. Sometimes, I used to read 2 books a day and read almost all books in my village library and school library. Our high school head master - Mohan Das garu, tried to put my focus back in studies by offering free tuitions to me. Since then, he & his family looked after me as his son. I have to write another blog to describe my experiences and learnings with him. 

The Polytechnic admissions in Mid-80s was not so organized. I joined in Zaheerabad polytechnic first and then learnt that there were vacancies in Hyderabad polytechnic also. But, they asked me to get my original certificates from Zaheerabad by next day. The public transport was not so good in those days. One of my brother's friend - Ramarao garu - took us on his bike overnight and brought us back by next day morning so that I could join Hyderabad Polytechnic ! 

Another family who supported our family immensely was - Koteswara Rao babai (uncle) and his wife. He was always there with us whenever we need. Despite his busy schedule, he took leave and came with us to admit me in Polytechnic college. I stayed in their home for a long time until I moved to my brothers room. What they did to our family in those trying years cannot be repaid with general 'thank you' notes. He was ,ofcourse, my inspiration to excel in studies. Though, he is not related directly to us, he always treated my father as his elder brother and we remain part of his family.  Among my relatives, Chalamaiah mama supported us as our family elder after my father passed away. He was always there for us without even asking and first person to goto in need. 

I started working as soon as I finished Diploma until final year of Engineering. I could not have done this without my MM Dept head - N.Subramanian. When I was finding it difficult to cope with work, travel and studies, he facilitated me by allowing to go to college early from work. By this simple act, I also had to learn to work smarter to finish my regular work (and more) in less time than usual. I became an expert in TQM and Kaizen in the process.  

I used to stay closer to college during exam days with my friend - Rameshwar Reddy. He took care of me, cooked for me and never gave me household work. Ofcourse, he is one of my best friends.

It was another friend in JNTU - M Srinivas (No.1) - who casually remarked that I should write CAT and do MBA which made me think about MBA after Engineering. It was - R.Satish - my manager at work and IIM Alumnus, who guided me on Entrance exams and told me to apply for IIMs and XLRI only.

I went to XLRI admissions interview in Chennai and stayed with lovely family of Yagna Prasad. It was Prof.B.M.Patel who asked me why I did not write about my work experience in XL application. I thought experience before graduation would not count and hence did not mention it. He asked me to write about my work experience in a white paper and give it to the panel for consideration.I am sure, this was the main reason for my admission in XL. Jayanti krishnan, another interviewee and my batch mate later, gave me a scale, pen and paper without bothering about competition from me. 

Thanks to Bhimeswara Rao bava, I got education loan and could goto XLRI for further studies. He even funded my loan insurance premiums and initial loan interest payments. I still remember he and Ratna akka (his wife) crossing railway lines to reach me & give send off as my train to XLRI was about to start and my brother wiping tears as he was sending me to a different city first time. I will write about my brother's love in a different blog post.  

So many friends and teachers in XLRI. Ravi Sankar and Chaganti Murthy took care of me in the first year as I was a bit loner in new culture in those days. I did not goto outings mainly because I did not have money and they sensed it and tried to take me with them. Puneet Mishra convinced Arvind Mills to take me as summer intern.  

I was definitely lucky that my B.Tech classmate Ramesh Babu Tanneeru was posted in Jamshedpur. Whenever I needed some money, I used to go to him and ask. I am really not sure whether I repaid all his loans or skipped some of them. 

I was a summer intern in Ahmedabad. Stayed with few GETs there. Mohit James used to cook for me and fed me, entertained me and took care of me there. 

My first job after MBA was in Chennai. Chakravarthy who joined there from IIMB helped a lot to make life easy in a new city without any money in the first month. Later days, Samba's mother looked after me as if I was her elder son. 

I also went abroad first time in 1997. It was Hari, who took care of me in a new country, and was a great support system in handling my customer when I was there. 

When I moved to Bangalore, I took a 2BR house for rent from Rajan Mathew in Airport road. I stayed there for 10.5 years despite buying my own house in 2002. He, his wife (Sheela) and family were so nice and helpful, we did not want to move.  If you want to meet someone who can selflessly help you, you should meet Rajan. He always has time for you, even if it means not going to his shop !

They remain part of my family wherever I am. 

I got depressed with lot of work and lack of clarity/support from project management in a project. Manoharan Subbu flew down from Bangalore to Delhi to speak to me and give me comfort. Avijit Biswas also asked him to speak to me personally. This taught me one of the most important lessons in leadership. 

One of my managers treated me unfairly (in appraisals & increments) for few years from whom I learnt what not do as a manager. I respect him for his brilliance in domain and also for this lesson.  

Learnt a lot about hard work, empathy, sharing, patience and domain excellence from Prasad Munirathinam. I would not have stayed in SAP for so long, if he was not there. 

This is not an exhaustive list of kind people I came across. Many of them, strangers to me initially and later became friends, just came forward to extend their helping hand to support me in a new place, new job, or give a nudge to change my direction. I have not included my immediate family members in this blog who have immense influence on me. 

They all taught me important lessons on Empathy & Kindness and moulded the way I interact with others. 

I will explain many small acts of kindness in Lagos in part 2 of the blog.

Thank You, All, once again !!