When I mention the word ‘Travails’ I know the imagination of readers may run amuck. But here I am not going to talk about eveteasing etc. I am going to shock you talking about ‘Nature’s call’ and how it becomes the real problem for a female marketing executive particularly when she is required to travel through interior villages visiting factories for marketing her products to achieve the target set for her.
Yes – this is going to be sort autobiography from my side – Till 1992 our organization, a central PSU was the monopoly agency for many minerals and metals and we the employees from peon to executives had a royal life – Many big industrial organizations used to stand in line for getting St. Steel, Sulphur, NF metals etc and though our organization was doing marketing of commodities, we never did any real marketing.
1992 – when liberalization was announced by Indian government and imports and exports of commodities were liberalized, it came as a great shock for us. We had to change our work pattern and many went on VRS too due to not able to cope up with the pressure of doing real marketing.
During 1993 I was made incharge of Sulphur Marketing which involved lots of travelling to sugar factories, viscose manufacturing units and cordite factory which used sulphur for manufacturing their products.
Our organization gave us five star treatment by providing us the best hotel accommodation, flight journeys or rail journeys by 2nd AC and ample daily allowance but still the targets set were quite high and it was real challenging - I really used to enjoy the challenges set forth but travelling to the interior parts of south India had its own problems especially when I visited the sugar factories which were situated very far from the main village due to the toxic discharge.
I used to stay in big hotel either in Tanjore, Trichy, Coimbatore etc and always used to take a bus to the sugar factory. Normally I used to to fix up an appointment with the MD or Marketing Manager from Chennai itself and used to get the travel directions too. I always preferred bus journey due to the safety it gave me instead of taking a car from the hotel because I always loved to be with the people too. Many villagers who travelled with me were so friendly and would tell me so many tales about the villages too.
Everything was fine till it was time for ‘Natures’ Call’ - Normally it took 3 to 4 hours to reach the sugar factory and after some nice marketing talks with the MD, I normally would look out for some rest room facility. I had never seen any woman MD or Marketing Officer and it was real difficult task for me to ask a male executive about rest room facility. Being from a top PSU, I was always given a Queen’s treatment with nice lunch or snacks and coffee, coconut water etc. But my eyes would always be searching for some female employees but most of sugar factories employed mostly men only.
Then finally, I would ask as to availability of toilet facility for me, I had always imagined the man in front of me blushing and that made my task more difficult. But as I knew I had again three to four hours journey back to hotel, I had no other alternative except to ask for toilet facility and many a times the MD would very graciously offer his own toilet to be used.
Once it so happened that there was only Marketing Manager to discuss and when I asked my usual toilet facility he was so apologetic and said that he also used the Men’s toilet in the factory. I knew I could not enter the Men’s toilet but then he solved my predicament by offering to take me to his home which was in the village and we had to travel 20 minutes in his bike, me holding my breath when the bike danced and jumped through the mud and stone filled road to the village.
All through the journey, I could see villagers looking amazingly at me because the sugar factory manager must be a very known person in that locality and a new lady in his bike could have created some riffles too. When we reached his home which was quite small and old, his wife was sitting on the outside verandah and I was afraid, seeing me she may get angry. But even if she had felt anger, she never showed it on her face, welcomed me with folding hands. They introduced their five children and I felt guilty I had not brought even a biscuit packets for them. Then the factory Manager took his wife inside and probably told her my requirement and she came all in laughs and took me to the back of the house. We had to pass through small small ‘nullas’ and reach the toilet space. It was not very clean but at that moment I felt like ‘Hrundi V Bakshi’ played by Peter Sellers in the movie ‘ The Party’ (The party was banned in India but the movie is real great – if anyone gets a DVD please see the movie and you will be laughing laughing – in our family, ‘Hrundi’ is the nick used when anyone is having urgent Nature’s call)
After my important work finished, I thanked them and said I just want to see the village and the wife accompanied me. We went to the only shop in the village and I purchased some pockets of biscuits and also some cheap ballpens and notebooks from the shop and gave it to the wife for giving it to the children. That moment, if it was possible I would have given my kingdom, if I had one to the factory managers family for the relief was that precious.
The journey back was pleasant with eating some biscuits on the way and after reaching hotel having a nice masala dosa and hot chockalate at the room itself. But leaving the above problem, I used to enjoy all my tours as I met lots of people and I could write also while in the hotel rooms even getting a hot coffee at 12 in the midnight.
Await the second episode of the his autobiography which will describe my travails in South Block Delhi as well as in Cordite Factory, Nilgiris.
But here again how I wish even in India we have rest rooms facility like they have even in Starbuck coffee shoppes in USA.
sushi
