Skip to main content

My Unforgettable Business Associates

 


I wish to recall memories of some of my dealers who were completely different and unique. In the pharmaceutical field, usually 3 tiers of dealers operate - state level Distributors, district level wholesalers called Stockists and finally retailers who dispense medicines to the patient. I am talking now about 3 such Stockists.

P.Venkatapati Raju (P.V.Raju & Co): He was my stockist in Guntur in the 70's and early 80's. He was a highly educated man....a B.Com, B.L.,MBA. He was an upright person who never bribed anyone in drugs department and sales tax department. It is a record of sorts in those days. He used to keep his shop open between 8am-12pm & 3pm-7pm. No matter who (even the high and mighty officials of big MNCs) visited his shop, not for a minute after the closing times will he keep the shop doors open for anyone. In those days computers weren't there but his stock ledgers were always kept upto the minute to tally with the stocks on the shelf. He was a joy to deal with.

Dr.Bhajranglal (Naredi Agencies): He was my stockist in Warangal in late 80's to mid 90's. He was a paediatrician by qualification belonging to a marwari business family. He was a collector of pens from around the world and had a special passion for pens. He had a collection of around 150-180 pens. His other passion was for mangoes. He was a great connoisseur of mangoes. He gets varieties of the king of fruits from all over the country during the season. Being his personal friend, I had the privilege of being invited for dinner at his home several times. Marwari hospitality is extraordinary and one has to experience it to believe. 

Prasad (Sairam Agencies): He was my stockist at Tanuku in West Godavari district in mid 80's. His business was run from a premises owned by himself. It had a very big open backyard full of greenery with plenty of trees. If he took you into the backyard for discussing business, it indicted his regard for you as a business associate. Have you ever seen a man who got his mangoes from only one exclusive tree season after season? He ate from no other tree for as long as he remembered in his life. He presented only those mangoes to anyone he liked most. Do I have to tell that I had that privilege?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pleasures & Perils of WhatsApp group

Initiating a WhatsApp group and then adding members with a message to a contact “I’ll add you to the group” is easy. But maintaining the group and making it productive has become a challenge. I felt honored when invited by my immediate senior in school to join  a WhatsApp group of Schoolmates in March-April, 2020. The group has a senior Banker, an Aero-Scientist, a Dentist, a senior Public Sector Administrator, a distinguished Poet, 2 medical practitioners, a Chartered Accountant, a horticulture scientist apart from me, a Pharma Sales Person. Interestingly, the group was put together by the daughter of the  Senior Banker. She wanted to present her father with a facility to recall and reminisce school days with his schoolmates. I am ever grateful to her for giving me a wonderful gift of connecting with old friends after decades of leaving the school. This is the latest WhatsApp group of which I became a member. I am also a participant in 2 groups of my relatives and have scores...
1 comment
Read more

Name & what it means to you

"A person's name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language”  said Dale Carnegie who was an American writer and author of many self development books. He explains the importance of a person's name in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People. He explains that a person's name is the sweetest sound they can hear. In other words, people love to hear their own name. My name is Madhva muni and I am named after my maternal grandfather, Sri Madhvachar who while being very orthodox, was a highly successful lawyer of his time. I always felt proud of my name since it also is associated with one among the trinity of great Indian philosopher theologians, Sankara Ramanuja & Madhva, the chief proponent of the Dvaita school of Vedanta. Since the time I can remember, I have been facing a peculiar problem with my uncommon name.  When someone has to write or make a data entry of my name, invariably  made it as MADHAVA MUNI by inserting an A after M...
2 comments
Read more

Life is like that!

  It was about 30 years ago that I had a strange run of experiences in a short period of 30 odd hours. It is a sort of unique occurrence that happens in the life of a sales person which may never happen in any other job.  Those were the days I was working as a District Sales Manager in Ciba(a Swiss MNC Pharma company) based in Hyderabad and responsible for sales in Telangana, Rayalaseema and North coastal districts (Visakhapatnam, Vijayanagaram & Srikakulam.) I once visited Mancheriyal with an overnight stay. I joined my colleague, Chandrasekhar (who was working Adilabad district) in his work in that town. Since I also planned to visit Sirpur Kagaz Nagar the next day along with him, he arranged for a room for my stay in a local lodge where he was also put up. The place was just about manageable with bare minimum comforts  - just an ordinary room with a bed and an attached bath. Clean linen apart, nothing more to write about the room. After completing the day's work in...
Post a Comment
Read more