P R Venkateswaran

Venkateswaran: Walking in the Theosophical Society early in the morning had many attendant benefits; apart from sylvan surrounding one also got a meet a varied crowd. Our own close-knit groups consisted of marine engineers, chartered accountants, businessmen, Air Vice Marshal, lawyer, doctors, engineers amongst others. We would assemble at a concrete cement bench overlooking the Adyar river and the sun raising behind our banks at the Bay of the Bengal to the roar of waves.

             Venkateswaran would join us and soon became a regular and well meshed into the group. He was in his mi-60s, very tall at over 6 ft, sturdy in the middle but otherwise very fit. He would sport a Bermuda shorts and a T-shirt and a small towel spread across both the shoulders as he walked in speed to a wrist watch. One of the knees would be in Craig bandage and the pony tail against a predominately black crop of hair was commented by many for it was a novelty.

He would take the towel and swish it vigorously on the concrete slab to blow out the leaves or dust before parking himself for a chat. As days passed we got to know him better. He started his career in the Indian Railways before doing a MBA in the 60s in Hawaii. From then on, it has only been an international career. He spent a decade in Africa and another decade in Europe, all his high echelons of corporate world. He is infact a British citizen and coming to Chennai was only for short time visits. He would dabble in stocks across the world and India gave him some cost savings.

            His IQ must be in the 160+ range and it shows. His command over 5 languages is extraordinary; he could read classical literature in Tamil, English, French, and Italian. He had a kind of brain that could seek the origin and then furnish his own explanation to an aural delight! Even the simple word like “jeans” or “corduroy” could be traced to its obscure origins in a French village. He knew his champagne or liquor like a connoisseur. He spoke in a soft, distinct, and measured tone and suffered no fools or any slights to his ego.

            Even at 65, he worked as a CEO representing an Italian firm here. He once invited me to his house and that was quite a spectacle. His luxuriant flat looked a page out of a filmstar’s penchant for elegance. There were original paintings and an unspeakable class all over the place. He spent his evenings on Carnatic music concerts (he could analyse the various ragas again showing the 160+ brain) or go for drinks at the Race Course Club or play golf at Cosmopolitan. If there was one huge emotional scar from the past was the untimely death of his 13 year old daughter while the elder one is married and settled in US. That really grounded him to a lingering grief.

            I always enjoyed walking with him and learning quite a bit. It is rare for an Indian to be CEOs or Chairmans of top 100 MNCs in Europe or America and I was getting a daily taste of it. Though he never got personal with anyone, he always made inquires about my jobs and health. He was all too aware of his strengths in the world and gave no quarter for others to ram in. He was such a top-notch working in Italy from Monday to Friday and residing in London in the weekends in his heydays.  He uses India as a base - either a US or UK citizen (I am not sure) - for investments in Indian bourses and cultural evenings in the form of Carnatic music, dance and dramas for which Chennai is uniquely blessed.

            He never forgot the purpose of his morning walks; the exercise was paramount and the gossip just a side dish. He was so organized and neat in everything he did: be it those concerts or those parties he invited us from time to time or his work. It really showed the measure of a classy international quality manager.

Verdict: Rajasic

Lesson to be learnt: He just minded his own business but the sheer weight of experience taught me so many things