Crisis Rajan!

 They were mad days in Clarion, Bombay, where I was working as an Account Executive. I used to work till late in the nights. Very often sleeping in the office and going home early in the morning to have a shower and change and come back to the office!  In the absence of a telephone at home or even in the whole building, there was no way I could inform my parents  that I would be late or that I would not come home for the night. I must have given my parents hell those days!

One day my mother lost her cool and screamed, “What kind of a job  is this? There are no fixed  timings and no time or the family! Your father never behaved like this in his whole life”.

Unfortunately, she did not realise that my father was not my role model in terms of my career! I wanted to succeed in a big way in the advertising world and I was willing to make any sacrifice to achieve my goal.

This period also coincided with my alienating my school/college friends. Every time any of them called me for a get together, my standard answer would be, “I am in the middle of a big crisis ,yaar. Sorry but I can’t make it.” Provoked by this my friend Ranga nicknamed me ’Crisis Varada’ (School and college friends used to call me Varadarajan or Varada for short). The reputation continued in the office circles when I started handling all troublesome clients. The management would not think twice before handing over a client to me to sort out a crisis created by the action or in-action of another executive on the account. I became ’Crisis Rajan`. I enjoyed facing problems and solving them. In fact, all these years my prayer to God has been  “God! Give me lots of problems and give me the courage to face them. Make my life interesting”. Even today, I am at my best in any crisis situation.

I continue to enjoy challenges which I try to face with courage as my companion.  But my prayer to god has undergone a change since my retirement from active professional life.. As I am on the last lap of my life journey I pray : `God,  don`t  make me a burden on my children but whenever you decide that my time is up, please take me with my shoes on.`