Vivek C. Pande, GM, Life Style Group, Khimji Ramdas, has chartered diverse career paths. His pastimes are as diverse, he reveals to Mehre Alam
Passionate. Perhaps, no other word can define Vivek C. Pande better. His formula is simple: relish whatever you do. Two fingers fractured, he has driven straight to the coffee joint where we agreed to discuss his pastime. And there is no sign of discomfort on his countenance. At least it doesn't show if there is any.
On May 15 this year, Pande completed 33 years of professional life. "I do not feel old at all. Physically, and mentally, I still feel very young," he asserts. At his age, Pande exudes some very positive energy. And his energy rubs on you. Very soon you realise this zealous man cannot have a mere one pastime. And the guess is in no way off the mark.
An IIT Kanpur and IIM Ahmedabad alumnus (both ranked among world's top engineering and management institutes), Pande turned to writing diary at the age of seven (in 1957). Pastime number one, that is.
This is something that Pande's close friends too are not aware of. "I have been writing as well as maintaining it. It's great fun to travel down the memory lane, once in a while the ups and lows...adolescent days...early 20s...the blunders etc. It is something I really cherish." Does the better half try a peep into this pastime?
"Well...err," Pande is non-committal. But the wry smile says it all. We move on.
How did he get drawn to his diary-writing passion at such an unripe age? "My father had brought a book written by a great Indian writer. The book consisted of excerpts of the daily diary this litterateur used to write. Today I met Mahatma Gandhi (the architect of India's freedom)...Today I met Nehru (India's first Prime Minister). That kind of stuff! This really intrigued me. That's how I was drawn to diary-writing."
Pastime number two: Pande adores poetry. He may not be a wordsmith himself but he meticulously jots down the poetry he finds good. He is mainly into Urdu shairo-shairi and Hindi kavita. "Kahne ko bahut kuchch tha agar kahne me aate, duniya ki inayat hai ki kuchch nahi kahte... (There was a lot to say about, but the world stops me from saying all that...)," he recites an Urdu couplet, aptly describing the rendezvous at the moment. Pande remembers many an Urdu poem at heart. Who is his favourite Urdu poet? "Without doubt Mirza Ghalib!" Who are the others? "Faiz Ahmed Faiz has his own charm. But his poems were a bit high-class Urdu."
Cut to pastime number three. Pande is neck deep into philately. "It's again a childhood pastime that I have managed to pursue. I have a collection of around 9,000 stamps. They are from 162 countries. Every two years I do a 'census' of countrywide stamps." When he came to Oman four summers back, how many stamps of Oman did he have at the time? Pande chuckles and in comes a wanton smile: "Before I came here I had just two stamps of Oman. Now, I have got close to 150 Omani stamps." No wonder that when Pande visited Istanbul recently, with wife in tow, one of the items on the shopping list was Turkey's stamp.
Pande is not among those who take specialization as the ultimate idea. Life, to him, is a much broader canvas. Doing something totally unrelated to one's past interests him a lot.
For one, he loves teaching. "One thing is for sure. Whenever I go back to India, I'll take to teaching. It's a favorite pastime for me, " Pande reveals. There is more to it than meets the eye, perhaps! He is passionate about "shattering the awe created around Finance about how 'hi-fi' this concept is!"
Pande is already into this myth-shattering exercise. He organises lectures to explain the Finance lexicon and fundamentals to the generalists. This correspondent, mortally afraid of the finance juggernaut himself, laps up the opportunity. "Please invite me to the next lecture on Finance, Sir." One more student for Pande to fulfil his pastime!
© Oman Daily Observer 2006
