A few years back, I was asked to write a small piece about Fr
Romualdo D’souza SJ when we celebrated his 90th birthday. I thought I should now share this with all of
you.
He was my former director and a person I admire. I was not sure which aspect I should write
about. But slowly I got the idea, I
should talk about Fr D’Souza as he touched me personally.
I first met Fr D’Souza at Xavier’s College at Mumbai where he
had come for some other work. He had asked me to come by in the evening to
discuss my joining GIM – then getting off the ground. I still remember that meeting like yesterday
and my going home and telling my wife how courteous he was to me. After the meeting, he sent me an appointment
letter – in longhand, written while he was sitting at an airport. My wife and I admired the handwriting as much
as the content. The handwritten letter was the indication of how he managed to
do wonderful things with so little. At that time, he neither had a full- fledged
office nor staff; but GIM was up and running.
On a rainy day, I landed up in Goa. The move had drained most
of what I had as cash after I paid off the mini truck which moved our things. My stuff was lying around as it was, unloaded
in the apartment, and Fr D’Souza stepped in to find out how his newest faculty
member was holding out. He quietly asked
me if I needed any money, sat down and wrote out a cheque to cover my trucking
expenses. It struck me that he was
putting into practice the theories on “concern for employees” by visiting an
employee in his new quarters, sitting on a chair still in its gunnysack packing
to write out a cheque. He was making sure he didn’t embarrass a new entrant to
the organization by making him write out a note seeking an advance of the salary!
We were struggling to get along with the limited resources in
those early years at GIM and electives had to be offered. I had already enough courses slated in all the
terms that year. One morning Fr D’Souza
walked up to my desk and asks me if I can offer an elective on Performance
Management. I could; but there was not even one advanced book on that in the
GIM library and I did not have any material with me. Internet and online journals
were still to come. We had a mumbling
conversation about Prof TV Rao having recently published his book on
Performance Management. I assumed that I
was off the hook, as in those days, it was impossible to get books ordered in
Goa. I was, anyway, stretched without
the new course coming my way. A few days later, he walked in to to drop off a packet from a professor in XLRI; he quietly left it on my table and left without a word. The Librarian informed me that five or six copies of TV Rao’s new book, have arrived for me. He had called up Prof TV Rao personally, and
got the books couriered down. The packet had a bunch of cases and other stuff that was sent from a professor in XLRI. The course went off on schedule! I had
forgotten how focussed the man could be when it came to getting things done for
students. This was before we even had our phone connection at the Ribandar campus.
A couple of years after I joined GIM, I had a disagreement
with Fr D’Souza and I left the institute – it was on a matter of principle. I continued to live in Goa and we would keep
meeting each other. He never let the
rancour show and always greeted me with a smile. He had pardoned me even before I could seek it
from him. I wish I could be half as charitable with others as he has been with
me.
My wife and I would also bump into Fr D’Souza in town some
times. Mostly, he would have spent the whole day working and then attend some official
or social function in the evening. He would still be impeccably turned out;
possibly some tiredness showing on his face.
The conversation between my wife and I, after Fr D’Souza had left, would
invariably touch on how the man could manage to be impeccably turned out at any
time of the day and where he got his seemingly endless energy from. I would tell her that I wish I could be like
him and have half the energy he had, if and when I turn 75.
During occasional conversations, Fr D’Souza would come out
with some comment – some time on events and sometimes on people, revealing at
the same time a deep understanding of them and a wicked sense of humour. These were never with malice but often trying
to get others around to his point of view. When I congratulated him on his golden
jubilee of priesthood, his response was characteristic of him, “So you are
wondering how this guy is still around- eh?”
His achievements, whether it was being a Jesuit for half a century
and more, being the Director of three large management schools, founding two of
them or having the Government of India confer the Padma Shri on him -- all sit
lightly on his shoulders.
On one occasion, at some event organized by the AIMS in a city
hotel, I was one of the few early arrivals.
As I watched, many of the office bearers slowly started coming in. They were former Directors (including the
IIMs) and a few present directors among them.
Fr D’Souza came in quietly and then I saw the respect he commanded when everyone
present got up to greet him warmly and with respect. He was, at that time,
holding no office and had no official power. What he had was the power to touch
the lives of people; as he has done mine. And I am what I am, for that little
touch.
Bala@Panaji
