write these autobiographies in their later years. While writing about their earlier life and difficult times they do mention the places where good food was served to them. This they do when they are senior in age. People remember the good food served by my wife rather than the discussions we had during their visit to my home. That is my experience. Annam bahu kurvit (set TG adic) is the Vedic advice possibly based on this universal experience. I learnt the importance of good canteen facility late in life. We accumulate lot of information and experiences in our mind but collating it and logical arrangement of such experiences is not always done by us to convert it into knowledge. From availability of farm help for my mother to Unichem Canteen was a long journey in my mind.
When the Jogeshwari canteen was upgraded I insisted on common kitchen and common dishes for workers and Managers. My managerial colleagues and staff members were not ready to have a common place for eating in the canteen together with workers. I was not in a position to implement the common eating place irrespective of the status in the job. My Managing Director also felt that this insistence on equality was a part of my idiosyncrasy. He had no objection to spending the money on the up- gradation, but he had already started with a special bathroom for himself. The staff and managers had different places for eating the common food prepared in a common canteen kitchen. In my youth I had seen separate seating for different castes in the annual village festivals. I remembered that. Common kitchen was the limit to which I could stretch my insistence on equality. Later even amongst the managers a separate arrangement was made for different halls for senior managers and junior managers. Subsequently even the kitchen for senior Managers was separated. By that time I was no longer connected with the Personnel function.
I faced certain social problems. Even though people did not have the feeling of different class there was a distinct awareness of difference and senior caste feeling amongst the managers. That managers constitute a higher caste and the workers are members of shudra (%[&) caste was the unspoken dividing line in the minds of my fellow employees. I have found this idea of differentiation in the minds of the managers of other companies also. They insisted on different seating arrangement as a part of their feeling of superiority. They were intelligent, educated and competent people, but in their minds this idea of workers being inferior was present in conscious manner. That a Managing Director must treat the managers with respect and follow the practice of allowing them to give their viewpoint. He should note their viewpoint and should not force his decisions on them. It was a consensus view of these trained managers. They expected that kind of treatment from their superiors. Theory Y in the management jargon was their desire from their superiors and they thought it as a natural method. But they were not ready to follow the
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