RE: When I was at Harvard...

Pradeep

Thanks for writing. Was unwell during last LTIT meeting

Why not share your own nostalgic experiences with the World ?

I would be happy to upload on my site

regards,

hcp

PS:

When time permits , do visit,

www.B2BmessageBlaster.com

From: Pradeep Talpade [mailto:talpadepk@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 10:43 AM
To: Hemen Parekh
Subject: Re: When I was at Harvard...

HCP

...HRS has very recently inducted me in this group of friends & collegues...I saw your note visited your blog & went thru all the five L&T stories...really enjoyed going thru them...a nostalgic experience...

...Good day to you...missed you last time in the LTIT meeting.

regards

Pradeep Talpade

On Tue, Dec 1, 2015 at 10:16 AM, Hemen Parekh <hcp@recruitguru.com> wrote:

Dear Friends :

Old habits die hard !

I have just uploaded Shenoy's contribution on my blogging site , as,

L&T  Story - 5

And now await YOUR contribution

regards,

hcp

From: Haridas Shenoy [mailto:hrshenoy1941@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 8:45 AM
To: Hemen Parekh; A R Rajurkar; AG Kale; AG Patkar; AK Ganguly; Amita Dixit; Anand Pasarkar; Anil Choudhari; Aravind V; Arun Khandekar; Arun Kumta; Arvind Rao; Asgar Saikh; Ashok Sanil; Atul Shah; AV Shenoy; AY Divekar; B Ramachandran; BB Singh; Bipin Shah; BJ Desai; BVRM Murty; CG Karamchandani; CR Mistry; Dinesh Shah; GR; Guha Thakurta; Gurudaat Kundapurkar; Hariharan S; HK Varma; HR Khona; HS Naik; HT Mehta; Jairam Menon; John Monteiro; K M Raja Sundaram; K Narsaiah; K Rajendran; KA Shaikh; KP Kotwal; KR Iyer; KR Patel; KS Ranganathan; Luis Vas; Madan Mandlekar; Mani Subramaniam; MB Meher; MD Palekar; MD Phatak; milind rajopadhye; MJ Paleja; MK Kaushik; MR Madnani; MVL Narasimhan; N Ramachandran; Natarajan Krishnan; NM Kudalkar; NV Srinivasan; PCS Ratnam; PD Joshi; PG Pande; PG Utagikar; PJ Pathak; PL Negandhi; Pradeep Talpade; Prakash Shrungarkar; PS Moharir; R Shivaji; R Sivaraman; RA Panchal; Raj Kumar Sheth; Rajat Desai; Ramesh Aggarwal; RD Kulkarni; RI Mehta; Rishikesh Joshi; Rita Rahimtoola; RM Yajurvedi; S Ravikumar; SA Bhoir; Sambhaji Shendkar; Sandeep Shenoy; Sanjay Galwankar; Sanjeev Gholap; SD Mande; Simple Agarwal; SK Shukla; SK Todkar; SM Warde; SS Ahluwalia; SS Manjeshwar; Suresh Gandhi; SW Patwardhan; Swapna Chaudary; TR Venkatraman; V B Ulman; Vasudev S; Venu Account; Venugopal Menon; VH Iyer; Vijay Lal; Vinod Sane; Viren Shah; Vivek Shiroor; VM Patel; VR Swamy; VS Iyer
Subject: When I was at Harvard...

When I was at Harvard…..

I joined L&T on All Fools Day in 1963.  I do not know who fooled whom – I fooled L&T or L&T fooled me.  Some of my friends feel I fooled L&T.  I do not agree with that; they are totally biased.

This is one case which will never be decided anyway,  unlike Salman Khan’s drunk driving which is in High Court or Govinda slapping someone which seems to be in Supreme Court.

My own case is in no court – neither law nor tennis.

After working for a few years in L&T, we stenographers and typists in Powai were called for a test – typing, shorthand followed by an interview.  I do not know whether I passed – with flying colours or without. I must have passed because I did not lose my job.  If I had, L&T would have been a loser too.  Gems like me are rare, I can claim with all humility though humility is not one of my virtues.  If British Embassy had known that I am Gem, they would have taken me to UK, just as they did to Kohinoor.

Anyway.

Interview followed the tests on the Halda typewriter and Parker pen shorthand.  Mr MH Pherwani, who I think was Dy General Manager handling General Workshops at that time, was interviewing me.  Later he moved to World Bank, because of the interview, in my view.  Like me, he too was a Gem; if he had continued with L&T Mr AM Naik would have stood no chance and would have been enjoying a well deserved retired life by now.

After initial questions, the questions turned to Management topics.  I was facile in answering them, I still remember, though I do not remember what the questions were. 

At certain stage, he was a little surprised listening to my answers.  He looked at my application form which I had filled when I joined, must have noted mentally my qualifications or lack of them, and asked me “How do you know all this?”

My reply:

“My boss is Mr HC Parekh.  He gets by airmail Havard Business Review and International Business Week.  I read these magazines from cover to cover before passing on to him and he gets a chance to read.”

The interview ended there itself.  If I remember right (my memory is not all that bad) he shook hands with me for the first and the last time in my life.

Later on, after retirement, I visited Harvard University (don’t get shocked, I was there for only one hour) and now I can make statements like “When I was at Harvard….”.  Nobody would dare to ask me when, how long and what I was doing there.

I still talk like an expert on Management subjects.  Nobody wants to listen to that talk is altogether another matter – they are the losers.

Well, Mr Parekh, here is another L&T Story which you have been looking for.

HR Shenoy, 7666128505

Co-Founder, Tejora Technologies Limited, tejora.com