A FAREWELL TO CANBANK FAMILY

 RETIREMENT a.k.a. SUPERANNUATION

Yes,  I retired. But still I am not feeling that I retired. I am feeling that I am on some leave and enjoying it. Office is nearby and now and then I am going there for a tête-à-tête and spending with my (now former) colleagues.

On the day I retired, our Office, as is the tradition, arranged a wonderful farewell function for me and gave a memorable farewell. My family too was invited including my little Grand Daughter Pravina. The function was presided over by our General Manager Shri Suresh Pai and sitting by his side on the dais (for sometime) is  my Grand Daughter Aanya Pravina.  

In fact to start with, the function was compered by my good colleague and Officer (now Manager) in my section Anshuman Ojha. He had conducted the function in a very jovial manner without allowing the normal "parting company pangs"  to surface. Following is the video to show the compering ability of Anshuman Ojha (whom I affectionately call Anshu).

Later my good colleague, with whom I had been working since 2009 Rajan P Sarang spoke. He is normally unassuming and very quite soft spoken.Here is what he said on my retirement day.

Immediately after Rajan came my good colleague Phani Kumar, who is in charge of our Risk Management Section. I fondly remember many a drive in his car discussing everything and anything under the sun. He has a good grip on English language and he suddenly surprises us with use of a very good word, during a conversation, which normally we do not hear from others.

Next was my young colleague Nitin Setia who has been my Man Friday since August 2014 who came by choice to our Section, which is traditionally reserved for very senior people. Recognizing his earnest desire to be part of the top Section in our Office, we took him under our wings.  He spoke quite well and shown an angle of my handling the work which others did not notice.

Any office will have a key section which takes care of all the facilities like payment of our monthly conveyance, communications to and from HR Wing etc. Basically a section which takes care of all the mundane requirements of an Office.  In our Office,  we have a Motherly figure, take it from me, not by age, but by attitude, whom we call Hey! Maa! and her name is Heyma.  She is really a motherly figure to the entire Office and she is quite good in public speaking too. When I conducted a Workshop on Overseas Direct Investment for about 80 participants from across the country, she compered it very well. On the day of my retirement too she spoke like she always does and you can see/hear her here.

Shri Shiva Kumar, Assistant General Manager of our Domestic Treasury with whom I worked earlier too. He had been in touch with me by virtue of my being in Head Office, while he was working in branches. He spoke recalling what others thought about me and also his own earlier encounters with me and our Section.

Shri P. Janardhana Rao, Assistant General Manager in our Office spoke on the occasion recalling my tantrums and antics which, he says (Of course I do not vouch for it!) benefited the organization. That's Great!

Next comes our Assistant General Manager Shri Rath, in charge of Risk Management,  who  spoke comparing me with "healthier version of RK Laxman's Common Man" poking fun at my b i g bald head. No offense meant and taken by me too. Its great to be poked like that humorously  by a good colleague .

In less than 4 minutes flat, four people spoke in the farewell function. First of the four is my immediate Boss in the pecking order Shri S Sekar, Divional Manager (who has given a very patient hearing and on whom I tested most of my albeit wild ideas), followed by Shri Manjunatha Pai, Assistant General Manager in charge of Correspondent Banking Section, Shri Rao,AGM, in charge of Domestic Dealing Room and finally Shri Harinder, Divisional Manager in charge of Forex Dealing Room.

It was good hearing all nice words, knowing fully well that occasions like retirement higher discount has to be given to what we hear about ourselves. Anyhow, hear them for yourself!

Finally, the Head of the Office-General Manager of Integrated Treasury Wing-Shri Suresh Pai spoke. Shri Suresh Pai and myself had been neighbours in our Powai Apartments for some time, at which time, often we were used to go together to Church Gate via Andheri to our Office at that time in Nariman Point. He is a great company. When during February-March 2017 Exporters-Importers Meets were conducted across the country, our GM insisted that I should accompany him and during the hand holding sessions to the Officials of our Circles and in the actual Exporters-Importers' Meets, he gave me wonderful opportunity to impart the little knowledge that I have.  I thoroughly enjoyed being part of the Exporters-Importers Meet at Ludhiana, Delhi, Jaipur, Agra, Mangalore and on our home turf Mumbai. You can hear him in this video, which only shows the great relationship, team work and Canbank Family concept we have in Canara Bank.

At the end of the our GM's speech me and my Wife were felicitated with a shawl, fruit basket and with coconuts in Maharashtrian tradition. These  memories shall remain with us forever.

Just before I spoke, our Staff requested our younger son Harish Chandra Prasad, working in Credit Suisse (Assistant Vice President) to speak and   without any hesitation he stood before the gathering and spoke briefly but quite well.  Here is the video of  Harish speaking, which touched my heart.

It is a great feeling to give my farewell speech  while my Grand Daughter was running around and playing, with my Wife sitting with me on the dais. Following is the video of my farewell speech, complete and unedited on 30th June, 2017.  Contrary to the expectations of "some" and my baseless apprehensions, I did not break down and shed tears.  In fact,  I thought that I may have to fight back tears and my voice would choke etc. But no such thing happened and I was quite cheerful and happy to be retiring. You can hear and see me giving my farewell speech on 30th June, 2017.

The function ended with the traditional Friday Pooja (performed every Friday) and this day, I did the Harati alongwith my Wife.

There was a a big photo session with almost all staff bidding farewell to me. 

 

Fond memory of love and affection of our Canbank Family

Sidelights: On the day of my retirement it was a great pleasure that our Grand Daughter Aanya Pravina was present. She even took a few farewell calls from my colleagues from across the country.

On the day of retirement, I hosted a lunch to all our colleagues in the Office.

 Good Bye Canara Bank which has been part of my life for over 3 decades