My career as a banker commenced in the year 1967. After teaching at the Loyola College in Chennai for two years, I got a job in a private bank which was later nationalised. I was to report for duty at their Kodambakkam branch. I wondered how the transition from teaching to banking was going to be.
On a Monday morning in July 1967, I reached the Kodambakkam branch. I had to meet the agent, manager in today’s parlance, to present my appointment order and other credentials. I found his cabin and a fair and tall man, probably in his late thirties, was occupying the seat. The name board on his table read A Namasivayam. He shook hands and warmly welcomed me to the bank. After telling me about the bank and its functions, he said, “You can master the important areas of banking if only you are really willing to learn. Even I can teach you if you want.”
I was initially posted in the dispatch department and asked to manage petty cash too. I religiously followed the advice of our agent and stayed even beyond banking hours to pick up new skills. And soon my agent transferred me in a very short time to coveted areas like credits and foreign exchange, considered the toughest and prestigious departments of any bank.
Our agent’s sustained efforts brought to the bank many prestigious corporate groups like AVM Studios, Vijaya Vauhini Studios and Madras Electrical Conductors, to mention a few. Some of the leading actors and actresses of yesteryear were also our customers as Kodambakkam was Kollywood’s nerve centre.
As all imports and exports of those entities were handled by us, I had a good chance to enrich my knowledge in foreign exchange which helped me execute large and even complicated export-import transactions with precision. Our agent used to sit by my side and teach me. I must confess that I learnt every syllable of banking only from him which helped me a lot in the later part of my career.
I was then selected for an overseas posting and eventually retired as a top management executive of a foreign bank. Our agent’s excellence coupled with dedicated service helped him get elevated as the executive director of the same bank. I have no hesitation to admit that many of my colleagues and I owe our entire career in banking only to Namasivayam, a great doyen in banking who became a teacher to make us what we are today!
Tharcius S Fernando
Email: tharci@yahoo.com