A tribute to Pillai, the Boss.

Hot-tempered, hard working, workaholic bosses are always a pain in the neck esp. for his subordinates in workplaces.  More so when the boss himself is a 'Yes Master' and a favourite to his superior!  One such, Pillai, headed our department for 15 years till he retired in 2001 much to the relief of many in our department.  But then the tiger in him had meowed, nay, mellowed a lot in his last three years in service, thanking and showing 'crocodile appreciation' even for simple tasks completed, gestures never seen from him before!  I was one of his targets to show off his official power, but this target was created by the cunning tale-carriers that lurked around!  We knew he was good at heart but was disliked for his 'tale-listening ears', tempers and showing 'seat powers'.   His ego was high that had prompted one colleague to nickname him as 'Stiffneck', which also went with his 'chin drawn back' postures. 

A pencil cartoon I had made of Pillai. My work is good if the 'stiffneck' is noticed!

"You take retirement and go." said Pillai to one senior colleague Srinivasa Rao during a tiff.   This aroused Rao who replied shouting "I will retire you from this world!"  This happened in front of the many of us.  Pillai then had 20 years of service, Rao had a few left and I was just a few years new.  Rao was very happy that he 'gave back' to him something, he being a 'blue eyed boy' in the dept.!  Many things like this used to go on.   In some years, he was to occupy the 'boss chair'.

But work went on as usual and these kind of incidents was fun gossip for coffee breaks.  He was a jovial person at times, when he was not at work.

There was a period of tense years where he had made me a target for trivial allegations - the background and something that followed when I felt being at a 'dead end' finds a separate story - in another post:  Click  here.  Freedom and some peace resulted, that changed my ways at the workplace.

Pillai settled in his Kerala home town immediately after he retired in 2001.

I had prepared a poem and had presented to him as a 'scroll' for that occasion.  The poem lists many of his qualities and was read out by my colleague.  Here it is:

THE PILLAI WE KNEW

Our Sri Pillai lays down office at the end of March,

To Sri Prabhu he will pass on the torch.

As spearhead of TT and B Development,

He brought laurels for the Institute's betterment.

His great virtue has been the art of conversation,

Which fully deserves our appreciation.

When there was no question of an agreement,

He outwitted the other in the argument.

His forte was his courage and wisdom in decision making,

The speed with which he did so was truly amazing.

Working with him had been mostly a pleasure,

The rest of the time it was pure pressure.

With the pen he was ever ready to sign,

Many a time, he had to 'draw a line'.

The bell switch will no longer feel his fretful finger,

But those typical "ting-ting ting-tings" will always linger.

The engaged telephone at the other end drew him nuts,

And his own, suffered from bruises and cuts.

When situations made us feel his presence,

We wished for his temporary absence.

Up until the time he crossed well over fifty,

He was the Chairman of Doorvas Committee.

Saviour faire had become one of his top attributes,

Also to all his other good ones, we pay tributes.

What we all usually saw was Pillai the taskmonger,

But the real Pillai happens to be a humdinger.

Le'im settle at Cochin, Calicut or wherever,

Let health and happiness be with him and family forever.

"Colleagues", 29th March, 2001

* * * * * * 

In May 2016 or dept. got the information that Pillai had passed away. He was 75.
May his soul rest in peace.
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