I did feel inspired and encouraged!

Technorati Tags: project, sbi, bi, banks

Came across the news relating to publicity campaign of Hillary Bill Clinton and that she was able to attract contributions for her electioneering purposes to the tune of 2.5 Crores in dollars in one go just by attending a dinner hosted by her supporters mobilising a collective sponsorship. Not a big thing for a person of her stature but the very modus operendi so adopted was quite inspiring in the sense that no task is abandonable simply because the person concerned doesn't find it feasible to directly muster necessary financial resource. I think of Mahamana Pt.Madan Mohan Malviya who by his single handed campaign was able to manage resources for bringing such a giant educational institution like Banaras Hindu University, one of the biggest  in the country, into existence. He was the one who asked for and got help from an ordinary individual to maharajas of the country. When my supporters enblock called upon me to write a book on my experiences during my career as an apex level trade union leader and as a functionery component in Banking industry offer all possible assistance for the job, I just couldn't muster necessary courage to take up the project involving enormous resources financially and otherwise. Later,however, I did reconcile falling in line with my supporters and agreed to work for it. These two instances mentioned above too acted as a source of inspiration and I do feel emboldened enough to harness myself to the task.

Picasa Web Albums - Ridwan - microsoft - 286546536_82e...

Picasa Web Albums - Ridwan - microsoft - 286546536_82e...

This is about Window's Writer

Born in India, living in India but not the citizens of India ?

Difficult to believe that there could be persons born in this very country and leading a typical life for a known period of more than 150 years without being recognized as the bonafide citizen of India. Known in the neighbouring areas as Jungle Villagers near Katraniaghat in Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh but this is a reality.The area in olden days belonged to Nanpara State later taken over by the Forest Department. These inhabitants are a harassed lot –police chases them as inti social elements, forest department staff considers them thieves blackmailing them on some count or the other and administration is only prompt enough to give a blunt ‘no’ to their demand for freedom and citizenship. Nearly 5000 in number, their life pattern is more or less like people in the stone age. When chased by police or the forest department employees, they at times have to hide themselves in the bushes and on the tree tops. They and their children have to survive on tree leaves, begging and preying with no regular source of sustentation.
They do cry for freedom at par with others in the country with similar citizenship rights themselves and through the small group they have formed for the purpose but theirs remains just a cry in wilderness and there is none to bother about so tortuous a phase of life they are leading. Denial of citizenship can in no way be a matter of reasons. Most surprising is the feature that even those political guys, who can run several miles at a strentch in search of smallest possible number of votes, are also not caring for them. They possibly will find it worth rubbing their heals only when these virtually downtrodden people are given recognition as bonafide citizens of the country acquiring right to vote.

I do honour their Indent..

Writing on any thing is too cumbersome a task, more so on subjects like Banking, Trade Unions and one’s own life. Cursorily and at times seriously too I have been writing volumes as a free lancer with my articles published globally online. There has been quite an amount of pressure on me for a long time to write some book on my experiments while serving in Banking Industry specifically in the context of my role as an apex level trade union leader with national/ international coverage on workforce angle. The indents so pressurized however couldn’t go beyond a bald requisition sans a tangible functionality. Obviously I was just unable to harness myself to such a project as my overdraft limit with the Bank already stood too squeezed in till now maintaining a small office to persue and followup my own writings and study. Convinced fully that it was worth and the need too to work on this project, my incapacitation resource wise stood in the way. Just some time back a close friend of mine Mr S A Farooqi indicated to me his plan to write on his experiences while serving State Bank as a senior executive. In his capacity as a brilliant functionary and a master mind behind State Bank affairs he is undoubtedly capable of writing elaborately worth a reading on banking. He can equally write much enough on his dealings with trade unions in his capacity as a master spokesman of the Bank on staff matters. I wished him all the best realizing in the meantime that , belong as he does committedly with heart and soul to management rung of the banking system, his focus is to be directed more to managerial areas and not so much the unions. I know some of the writers earlier belonging to Indian Banks Association who did cover the role of unions in their work but tune and tenor wise it was nothing more than strategies to keep off the ‘necessary evil’. Farooqi is the one who has been exceptionally popular in his dealing with industrial matters and has a big friends circle not only in the management but amongst members of staff too. He has two types of friendship –the one with a bond of sincere commitment and the other one just as a measure of sheer strategy to woo the other side. Many a people fell victim to such a master stroke of his without ever knowing the artist behind. In both the kinds of friendship he played his role in quite a calculatedly dexterous manner. He represents a class –the management. Class apart I earnestly wish him to complete his book.
Notwithstanding this, I still thought of writing some thing based on the situations as I saw them and experienced which idea got almost drowned but for the support extended to me by Awadhesh Pandey, himself a committed trade union leader of repute, to manage the resource himself and by mobilizing the like minded people for the project.requesting me most enthusiastically not to abandon the project and persue it to a logical end instead.
The way Awadhesh Pandey has so enthusiastically taken the lead of a tangible order himself and on behalf of his team coupled with a large number of requisitions made to me by the like minded people throughout the country, I just can’t afford saying ‘no’ and feel duty bound to undertake the Herculean task with whatever the odds. I do honour the Indent, I get harnessed to the task. I solicit the support and cooperation from all my friends and wellwishers.

This post is dedicated to Awadhesh Pandey

Picasa Web Albums - neelkanth

Picasa Web Albums - neelkanth
Larry Griffith's work on labour day is so inspiringly attractive. The colour combination in contrast look otherwise only matching when viewed compactly. Couldn't actually follow in what sense it directly denotes some thing on labour itself. Deriving some meaning out of it on that count I can only visualise the glitterings in the life of a labour too who toils hard the whole day and odd hours to make some meals for himself/ herself and the family -the children who hankeringly wait for the whole day for their father/ mother to return home bringing some thing to eat. I do admire the photographer.

What piercingly pinching a day is this?

From MyDiary: (10/06/2007)

This day I was married to Sundari (name later changed to Shashi by Bela Ben at Varanasi -I called her Kammoji). What kind of marriage anniversary it is for me without Shashi who left me alone 4 years back –matter of 4 years looking like it was some thing that happened only yesterday. Her face, her looks, her charm, her getup everything is so vividly visible to my eyes. Alone and single, my union with her for decades looks to be too small compared to these 4 years I have passed without her. Only the other day, my daughter Pariksha was murmuring in her dreams ‘Mummy, Mummy’ and how pathetically pinching it was to me every moment thereafte. I could not sleep the whole night. Bachhey (Pariksha) normally doesn’t talk much about her Mummy otherwise, may be because she may not be able to express herself fully like normal people do but how deep is the thought of her mother in her mind that it has got so strongly fixed in her sub consciousness which comes out as her immediate thought during sleep. Alone am I, alone I live on, alone am I in taking care for Bachhey in a dual role as a father, as a mother. The very thought of her life without me with the fear of the unknown always in my mind terribly shatters me, more so as I have none around to share the situation. Infact it is for Bachhey that I am so much cautious about my health as to the extent it is left to me I would like to survive the maximum for her leaving the rest to the Immanent Will that is supreme and ultimate.

Down the memory lane !

It’s about the past –glorious, sublime and eventful , the past that is very much supposed to include the present as it is the present only that becomes the past with on time making a crawl between the two. I fondly ventured to harness myself to the task of giving visibility to the history of SBISA/ AISBISF – the history which has been till now confined to mouth to mouth carry forwards only ofcourse with certain exceptions by way of some writings or the other through occasional souvenirs. Another exception is the book ‘MOMENTOUS MOVEMENT –Glimpses’ by V.Ganesan, a veteran trade union leader of eminence from State Bank. I feel so humble to afford any audacity of supplanting whatever has been written in whatever form till now by my predecessor writers –my attempt to bring forth some more facts to light may at the most supplement the literature available till now making various narratives a subject matter of a composite study.May be the current project in hand acts as a link to my ‘PHOENIX’ which I have been posting on line as a serial. This writeup is on an autobiographical tone of which 3 episodes are already published online which are accessible through my sites like http://neelkanth.wordpress.com/ or http://gallery-neelkanth.blogspot.com/ or other ones traceable with tag search e.g. phoenix, banks, sbi. Phoenix and the project in hand is to be either clubbed together or concluded separately.With a view to secure a meaningful cooperation, assistance and contribution from different quarters aimed at giving the project a tangible shape, I propose to contact people who count for the purpose and those visiting this site of mine are requested to furnish to me whatever information, record or event down the memory lane they have alongwith photographs if available enabling me to use the same for the book. In this very context , I wrote to the top incumbent incharge, SBISA (Bengal Circle) Com. Ashok Dutta, himself a great advocate of preserving the legacy of the organisation with utmost grace. The text is reproduced as follows as the contents contained therein are meant for all those who have some slightest possible semblance of concern for SBISA/ AISBISF:

Hope all is fine at your end. This communication is for a purpose. Infact I had a craving all along to prepare a suitable writeup on the history of SBISA/ Federation highlighting the pivotal role played by the individual stalwarts of the organization with its basic roots in Kolkata. This gigantic task is virtually so onerous both from the amount of labour involved angle and also the angle of financial resource. Labour angle I can and am prepared to put in but feel handicapped in mustering the necessary financial resource for the project and it is this incapacitation on my part that withholds the much needed take off in the required direction. Visibly nothing in sight, I am still not for giving up nor am I prepared to abandon the project. Supported by none till now joining me for the mission, I wish to myself to secure some avenues or the other to foster the implementation of my dream project without knowing where to land. As an humble beginning in a frugal order, I am to pick up some of the giant figures who themselves became a history the way they built up this organization and I as one would never like to obliviously ignore their entity as that of nullity. You owe my thanks if you are able to send me a printable photograph of Mohan Da alongwith that of Bodi, certain memorable events connected to him/them which you take as topmost, Nirmal Da alongwith his wife and whatever could be available traces of Soumendranath Tagore. My blogs are globally published online and I would like to serialize the mention of these doyans followed by others afterwads through these blogposts tobe given a compiled shape later. Depending on your response to the requisition I have so made, I shall be bothering you further for some information or the other placing the requisite indent from time to time. I don’t know what is the level and extent of Internet usage by you on your computer which can otherwise be compatibly convenient in sending the above information to me. You can send it through your email also. You can also load the required information online directing it to me or you can let me know the site and I can easily import it to my computer. If you otherwise have any interest in online blogs, you may please go through one of my web sites link of which is given below. Posts in these blogs are by way of free lance journalistic pursuit but it is quite easy to sort out the writings on organization and banks through tags ignoring various kinds of topics on different scenarios and media based issues. Thanks.

Phoenix [3] ...contd

Third in sequence, this one is a running narrative with reference to activities of SBISA/ AISBISF, the operating trade union organisations in State Bank of India.

CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEETING -SBISA:

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Central Committe, a top forum of SBISA, in its meeting held at Brindaban on the 19th November’94, took several important decisions on crucial matters including supercession of Circle Committee in Delhi Circle replacing it by an Ad-hoc Committee and my election as an Honorary member with effect from 1st February’95 (my date of retirement from active service of the Bank being 31st January’95). The Ad-hoc Committee so appointed consisted of 78 members with S/s. PP Trikha and VK Gupta as Convenor and Joint Convenor respectively. Not happy with the definite decisions so taken, a splinter group within SBISA itself operating at Calcutta chose to go to Calcutta High Court against the Central Committee -so strange and peculiar an instance of a Circle Unit of SBISA working against its apex, the Central Committee. It was Shyamal Kumar Sen Vs State Bank of India Staff Association. Shyamal Kumar Sen being the Circle President of SBISA,Calcutta Circle. After prolonged hearings, their case was rejected outright by the Hon’ble High Court fully upholding not only the decisions of the Central Committee but also the relative areas emerging out of the decisions taken by the General Council of SBISA in their Conference held at Kanpur on the 16th October’94. To recall with a view to cursorily have a glance over the proceedings, an extract from the Chief Secretary’s Circular dated 14th August’95 is reproduced:

“........Meeting of 19th November’94 at Brindaban was a well attended Central Committee despite a campaign launched against it by some of the office bearers in certain circles. Suffer as they did from a severe disgust on failure of their ill designed move to torpedo the legitimate functioning of this Organisation, some of these very office bearers, a limited few so far as the overall strength of the Central Committee is concerned, unduly aspired to see that ultimately their “say” is to materialise as against the will of the representatives in general who took conscious decisions after threadbare deliberations on different items on agenda at the level of the Central/Central Working Committee. One way to satisfy the element of hostility was to compromise the decisions of full Central Committee against the whims and fancies of certain individuals which could have just shattered the very fabric of democratic system in the Organisation. These very elements are the same who did not hesitate to bargain the autonomy of a giant organisation like SBISA in pursuit of their selfish goal going to the extent of inviting intruders to pollute its sanctity..........”

The Conference of SBISA held at Kanpur on the 16th October’1994 was a land mark in itself and it took several crucial decisions.When disputed by an individual or two with an adverse agenda in their mind, the Hon’ble High Court at Kolkata upheld all the decisions of the Central Committee in toto and this in itself was a historical factor. Deliberations during trial of the case in the Court and off the scene make an interesting reading in many ways. The petitioners who filed the writ against the Central Committee of SBISA quite succeeded in prejudicing the Court against me through their leading advocates to the extent that the Judge openly used to talk ill of me when addressing my advocates with a definite message to ridicule me. One such remark was “Look, your client is a big bully and too powerful a person, has got guts to disregard this Court. Your client had the audacity to tear the order of this Court to pieces. Infact this is how the lawyers from the opposite side repeatedly projected my image in the Court with cock and bull stories to manage necessary bias against me. On one such occasion I felt like giving an immediate reaction to such remarks arguing the position myself knowing fully well that it was to incur the wrath of the Court resulting into contempt proceedings against me but I saw a feeling of fear writ large on the faces of my lawyers who virtually corckedup my mouth with their palms in full view of the Justice himself. My lawers assured me to apprise the Court of the correct picture in the matter as against a most distorted version of it given by the opposite side. Reconciling, I stopped continuing after a few words.Next hearing onwards it was altogether a reversed scenario….. (to be continued)