How does one like one’s first boss to be? Thoroughly professional – someone who tolerates your naiveness but enables your growth to meet your potential, right? Mr. K N Dar was exactly that for me. He had this gentle, caring way of showing you your flaws and also where you should go as a professional. A novice like me got the opportunity to assist him in the preparation of the IPSC Diamond Jubilee conference that the school was so proudly hosting, thanks to his visionary capability and farsightedness.
As a school leader, the hallmark of his style
had been to keep the best interests of the individual student at the centre of
all decision-making. A thorough professional, he woke up early in the morning
to make several rounds of the large campus, and went back to his quarters late
into the night after ensuring all student hostels are without events. He
ensured he paid attention to the individual needs of different students and
also those of his teaching and non-teaching colleagues, down to the lowest rung
of the ladder, valuing each person as worthy of self-respect. Of course, he had
an acute sense of what each person can contribute to the institution and never
hesitated in giving everyone the opportunity to bring in their best.
A personal anecdote will bring his style to
perspective: I was a night owl back then and regularly woke up later than I
intended. My colleague who shared the quarter with me, on the other hand woke
up in time and did what he had to in the morning. He had a first hour class and
I had a second hour class on an occasion. I had requested him to wake me up
before he went for his first hour class so that I would get enough time to get
ready for my second hour class. He did that but I went back to sleep. Not
someone to miss making rounds of the academic block in the first two pre-breakfast
hours, Dar sir noticed that I wasn’t in my class. He sent a student to my
quarters and the fella saw me in my home clothes in a just woke-up state. Such
an embarrassment! This happened again a couple of months later. This time, Dar
sir waited outside the class and I promptly apologized to him and said this wouldn’t
happen again. He just smiled and said OK. He then promptly sent a peon to the
very class where I had reached really late with a letter from his office. Gosh!
What was it? A memo? The formal letter said, “I thank you for your assurance
that you won’t be late to your class in the future.” No reprimand, no
criticism, no shaming except in this subtle and sensitive way. I was
thin-skinned enough to never ever be late to class in that school or anywhere
else I worked after that.
My great fortune that I had such a tall
personality as my first boss! May his soul rest in peace and his amazing
memories live on…
