25-12-2018, 04:57 PM
I completed my course and graduated from IIT Kharagpur with an excellent score. Unlike many of my colleagues, I decided not to go to USA. I soon joined a large and prestigious multinational company as a management trainee. It was a coveted job with a "four figure" salary (those days, anything over a thousand rupees a month was considered to be a king's ransom). The company laid great stress on training and grooming its future managers. In that laid-back age, the training period stretched to three languid years. Apart from exposing the young trainees to the company's business, a lot of importance was given to the development of a personal rapport with the company's executives, as well as with people from customers' and suppliers' companies. Great emphasis was also placed on teaching proper etiquette, dressing & deportment to the future managers. As a part of my training, I was posted for a few months at a time at various establishments of the company that were scattered all over the country.
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Although we never wrote letters, Swati & I had kept in regular touch by exchanging birthday greetings, Diwali & New Year cards and kept each other informed about our changing addresses. One day, while I was posted in our Mumbai office, I received a letter from Swati. She wrote about her plans to visit Mumbai, and wondered whether I might be able to meet her. She was scheduled to arrive on Saturday, just a couple of days ahead.
"You bet!" I muttered as my heart skipped a beat.
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Although we never wrote letters, Swati & I had kept in regular touch by exchanging birthday greetings, Diwali & New Year cards and kept each other informed about our changing addresses. One day, while I was posted in our Mumbai office, I received a letter from Swati. She wrote about her plans to visit Mumbai, and wondered whether I might be able to meet her. She was scheduled to arrive on Saturday, just a couple of days ahead.
"You bet!" I muttered as my heart skipped a beat.
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