Champu’s marriage and the question of class

Today and yesterday (which was the reception in a top hotel, from the bride’s side), I went to attend Champu’s marriage. I saw him first, a boy of hardly 8/9 in 1989 and a smart boy of his age, only brother of one of my best friends Ananya (Ani), my classmate in engineering, a friend I revered thro’ the years for his maturity, poise and class. A great grandson of Surendranath Dasgupta, a close friend of Tagore and Principal of Sanskrit College, then the most respected chair of all academics, a grandson of Maitrayee Devi, one of the most respected writers in Bengali, an academy award winner, close friend of Indira Gandhi, celebrated disciple of Tagore and the director of a famous orphan home.

Ani did his engineering ( in fact his father didn’t wait for his joint entrance exam and got him admitted in Bangalore univ. before the result was out), gave CAT to get a chance in Times school of Marketing, got absorbed in Times Guarantee Finance, worked for 1.5 years, came back to Cal, gave GMAT and got into Cranfield for another MBA for 200 years, married school-time sweetheart Madhulika (a heavenly beauty of whose existence I was privy to and always used to tease him about), got placed in KPMG (Bahrin), worked for 4/5 years before changing to Andersen in London (he used to give more rent than I used to get my monthly stipend when I was in England), bought a house in Golder’s green (a stone’s throw from Hampstead heath) – a posh area in proper London, left job for an 1-year MIF in London Business School, topped in an all-Euro Business School competition in Strategy, joined the famed (& totally focused in strategic consulting) Marakon Consulting and worked for many years before becoming a Director and leaving to become a hot-shot in Stanchart Singapore. In Marakon, he used to see only one account for years, which is ABN Amro (2nd largest Euro-bank), and used to spend every Tuesday with the Chairman himself. BTW, he was the guy who told me about MBA and it’s uses after he got in Cranfield. My naivette seems touching but this is true. I tried it in the next year.

His brother Champu, an even smarter guy and who had the good fortune of his brother’s example, Studied Economics from St. Xavier’s and got an offer from all 5 IIMs. He chose IIM-A, got summer trained in Goldman Sachs which absorbed him for their London office. Worked for a few years and joined RBS. The important thing is that he always knew, from his childhood perhaps, that he is going to becomer an “MBA”.
Today he married Beatrice, a pretty sweet French girl he knew from his IIM-A days when She came on a student exchange program and has since been on London on design and also is in RBS.

I gave so much of introduction to say a very simple thing. It needs a tremendous focus and hard work to succeed. I love Ani and always felt proud rather than jealous when he went on winning one summit after another. I always felt him on his days when he worked on a 16-hour day for months and years on. Madhulika had to sacrifice a lot and had to bring up their two daughters almost single-handedly till they had an opinion of their own that forced Ani to change from Consulting (they said they want their dad’s time more than they need any more money). But the foundation of his success, I believe, is his parents. His mother is an epitome of poise and real class, if you can feel what I mean, which is Anything that is queenly, but his father, a corporate honcho, radiates a kind of quiet poise and vision that is quite rare among all the respective fathers of my friends. This I believe had prepared them for the maturity and the focus on their destiny in the corporate world. This is where they were quite different from myself (a refugee whose family focused more on survival than on the offensive) or my other friends who are more of the general middle-class upbringing. Here, the question is not of the brilliance or intelligence or anything else. It’s a question of LASER, which emits tremendous energy or rather force, upon a small area where it becomes a cutting edge. Ani never believed in hard and consistent work in his BE days, he was after the fun, but I have seen him going before the exams and I never had any doubt regarding his brilliance and the strength (that lets somebody rise on the occasion). This toughness is partly hereditary, but implemented thro’ personal brilliance.

He always joked. “ when the going gets tough, the tough gets going”. Hat’s off. Gentlemen.