I went to Guntur in May 1972 to join as a Medical Representative in a Swiss Pharma Company, CIBA. There was already a person working in Guntur as a Medical Representative for my Company. He was 5 years senior to me in the company. The job of a medical representative is very different from the usual office jobs you are familiar with. Ours is a field job. We meet doctors (on an average 10 of them per day) in the area assigned to us (in our Company, in the 70s, it was 1 or 2 districts) and promote our brands of medicines. Those days, we didn't have any fixed hours of work but we generally were working in 2 sessions in a day (morning session between 9am - 2pm & evening session between 5pm - 8pm) We usually work independently and our boss joined us in our work for 3-4 days in a month. During such visits, he assessed our work and also helped in improving it by way of giving on the job training. Our boss was stationed in Hyderabad.
I had finished my college studies and in a few months from my completion, I got my job. I was a bachelor. My senior colleague (Sarma) was married and had 2 children. We got along very well with each other and were an eye sore to many in our circle of friends. Medical Representatives' profession is unique in that during the field work we, from different companies, are hard fighters defending our brands and attacking competitors to the hilt. But away from the work, we are all great friends. The bonhomie is to be seen to be believed. Sarma and I had a number of common friends in Guntur. In 1975 Sarma left Guntur on promotion. He became my boss based at Vijayawada. A new colleague joined me by the name Rao.
Sarma came to Guntur once for field work with Rao and me. That day we completed our full day's schedule of work in the morning session itself. Sarma wanted to visit one of our old friends in the evening. So he bid good bye to Rao for the day after lunch in the hotel where he was staying. I met Sarma again at 6pm at his hotel room since we planned to go together to our common friend. As we were getting ready to leave the hotel, in walked Rao into the hotel room with his subsequent month tour program paper. Reluctantly accepting the paper, Sarma had a glance at it. Since Sarma had worked the same territory before Rao inherited the same, he knew the territory, all doctors in full detail. He noticed that the program didn't include a visit to a place called Cherukupalli (a town in Guntur district) When asked why it was missing, Rao said as there are only 2 doctors in that town which would bring down his daily average doctor visits. The answer angered Sarma as it showed lack of understanding of purpose of our work (that is to achieve sales objective) by Rao as those 2 doctors were top contributors to our sales . What followed was a discussion on how Rao was to refocus on business attainment and shed his casual attitude. Rao's some foolhardy arguments resulted in free flow of choice epithets by Sarma. The mood in the room had dramatically changed making Sarma decide against going out to meet the friend since it was very late to go.. Rao and I trooped out of the hotel room. While coming out of the hotel, Rao asking me if I was ever given a similar mouthful by Sarma. I was dumbfounded with that foolish question. That was surely like putting his foot in his mouth. The obvious answer was a "NO." as that kind of occasion never arose in my case. (even if one were to imagine such a thing occurred when Rao was not present, the answer would still be a no, obviously! Anyone in my place would also say no) For the day more than once, Rao had put his foot in his mouth. Can anyone beat him in this art?
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