Farewell by G-12

I had previously posted about the G-12 Family Friends Group in Singapore. The Vice-Chairman of G-12, SR, decided to arrange a farewell for me on the 27th May Saturday evening at Mantra, a new contemporary Indian restaurant at Cecil Court in Singapore. Incidentally, I discovered that Mantra is a 2-week old restaurant started by one of my old colleagues, RK, from my WIPRO days (it is going to be almost two decades…..can’t believe it !).

The G-12 Family Group was almost in full attendance at the farewell event. This is a pretty stable group of Indian executives and it is the 11th year since I have been a member of this group. We have had excellent friendships and contacts all around via this group. The Chairman, the Big “B” and the Secretary, the “CS”, were present, and it was great to connect with all and have a nice get-together.

The food was good. I chatted up with the owner of the restaurant, RK, and we reminisced about good old technology days. He had recently left a tech company to start this restaurant. I told him that the location is very good for the lunch time crowd of CBD, especially the financial district.

The G-12 members surrounded me and tried to find out the rationale for my impending departure – some of them already knew, but several were quite surprised by my decision to leave what is the most popular “Indian City” outside of India – who would like to leave Singapore which combines the best of the West with the Eastern traditions ? Look at the orderliness and economic prosperity all around. What could have driven me to make such a decision as this, to move out of Singapore, not to go to a more advanced country, say the U.S., but back to India ?

Well, we spent considerable time discussing the reasons – after all, I am not the first guy to leave G-12 and Singapore back to India. There was, ofcourse, lots of talk about India, and its “living” challenges. Mumbai was a favourite city of G-12, as many members hail from that city, and are fond of Mumbai even today. I don’t know whether they would like to go back and live in Mumbai, but they found a soul who is prepared to do so, though the soul did not hail from Mumbai, neither has it ever lived in Mumbai. And, should I say, they were enthralled by its prospects ! And the soul is still thinking of the multifarious challenges that could face it in the very near future all the time !!

I have not learnt Hindi all this while, as there was no real need for the same, what with Hindi movie DVDs coming with excellent English subtitles – my only regret being that while my eyes were quick enough to read the subtitles, they were not robust enough to follow the actual scene being enacted as well – you get to see only partially and keep thinking about what you have missed ! I explained to the group that I engaged a Bhawan’s Global Indian International School’s Hindi Teacher for a rapid Hindi Learning Program for 12 hours, and just completed the same. They challenged me to speak a few words or sentences, but I demurred. It may not be a good idea after all.

Post dinner, there were a series of farewell speeches, spearheaded by the Vice-Chairman, SR, and eminently followed by others. There were some very touching speeches such as the one by RS, who expressed enormous confidence in my capabilities to weather new challenges. All the speeches and the gestures of goodwill touched my soul. Here’s a group of people who really do care about their team members’ welfare and growth.

I gave a fairly long speech of 20 minutes ; though I had prepared bullet points, I abandoned the same, as it was very clear that my extempore speeches are always better than my prepared ones. I made some good points in the speech such as deferring to one’s better half when it comes to making strategic decisions, as one’s head is always clouded with so many things and so is not clear always. When my wife found that I was dithering and beating the bush, she gave me a kick and then I realised I had better finish soon. It still took me another 5 minutes to wind up thanking one and all.

It was a great touching evening, and it was a fantastic feeling that one is liked and admired by a group of significant individuals who themselves are to be admired for their individual and collective strengths and character.

Thanks G-12 Friends and Families !

Some of the pics from the get-together as below for your enjoyment – please send me more for publishing.

Best Regards

Vijay Srinivasan
27 May 2006
Singapore