WORK WISE
The toughest day in my career

Sushant Banerjee, Manager, British Council Library, Chandigarh

"ON January 21 this year, the new building of our library was to be inaugurated. The top brass-the Chief ministers and Governors of Punjab and Haryana, the Deputy Director-General of British Council, etc — were among those invited for the function. Early that morning, my Deputy Manager, who was to coordinate all the arrangements, met with an accident.

How I coped

"I was in a terrible fix. On the one hand, there were so many last-minute preparations to be done. On the other hand, I had to rush to help my injured colleague. To make matters worse, it was raining heavily. My wife and I spent the entire morning attending to her while I asked another colleague to look after the arrangements. I barely got back on time to have things in place for the function. Later, I was gifted a picture of the inauguration that I've preserved to remind me of that crisis-ridden day.

My mentor & mantras

"My former boss Ramachandra, who was the Executive Director in the Bangalore Stock Exchange, was like a mentor and guide, who actively nurtured my ambitions and always encouraged me. I used to keenly observe his style of working and dealing with clients. I've imbibed many strategies from him. It's from him that I've learnt to give whole-hearted appreciation to good workers and to discourage people who're work shirkers or indulge in gossip and back-biting."

— As told to Chetna Keer Banerjee