N. Raghuraman’s Column – How did you enter your first day at the office? , N. Raghuraman’s column: How did you record the first day of the office?

N. Raghuraman, Management Guru

In 1997, Vivek Khandekar was sent as a probationary officer in Mallapuram district located in the forest area of Kerala. He went to the inner parts of the forest and there were staff people all around to listen to them. But there was a language barrier between him and the staff. Marathi speaking Khandekar knew nothing about South Indian languages.

Although he knew some words of Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, he could not speak any of these languages. First of all, Vivek asked everyone to introduce himself and tell something about the nature of the work.

Since he forgot to bring a pen to write, he said, ‘Pen Venumam’. He said this in Tamil. Since some words of Malayalam and Tamil are the same, the eyebrows of every person present there were tanned. He did not give any response and no one shake from his place to bring a pen.

Vivek was surprised and he raised the same thing and repeated the same thing. Employees started looking at each other. For the third time, when he repeated the same thing, they all sat in their jeeps and one of the team members said that let’s go back to office. Will talk there. On reaching the office, Vivek’s boss called him and asked, ‘What did you say to these people?’

Vivek repeated the same sentence. On this, the forest officer laughed in full swing and told that it is translated into Tamil that a woman needs. Today Vivek is the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests in the Social Forestry Department in Maharashtra. I met him at breakfast on Friday morning.

From this incident, I remembered Dr. Sneh Bhargava, born in 1930, who was one of the first Indian women to become a radiologist. She was the same woman who persuaded high officials of the Government of India to bring CT scanners in the country. Till that time, there was either X -ray or had to be cut and opened to see inside the patient’s body.

She climbed the rung of Pragati and became the first female director ever in the history of AIIMS decades. After retiring from AIIMS in 1990, Dr. Bhagava played an important role in the establishment of two top hospitals in Delhi. She never retired from work even at the age of 90. But she had to retire due to the rules of Kovid-19, as she could not work in the hospital at this age.

He used this new free time to write a book in which a clear and open conversation with the readers. Probably this book will be the best autobiography of important individuals of Indian medicine. The book was released in May 2025, titled, ‘The Woman Hu Rain AIIMS: The Memoyers of a Medical Pioneer.

The most interesting experience of his career was the first day in 1984 as AIIMS Director. A few minutes after assuming the post, the first patient he got was none other than the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He was brought to AIIMS after being shot. He was shot at 9.20 am on 31 October 1984.

I could never forget my first day in the office of the newspaper “The Daily ‘, which was a Mumbai tabled. It was 12 March 1993, when my city was 13 blasts in Mumbai. 257 people died and 700 were injured. Bombay stock exchange, hotels and other public places were targeted in the blasts.

Funda is that The first day in the office can be shocking, surprising, pleasant and tired. Have you written it like Doctor Bhargava to share with the next generation. If not done, then start, because if you have worked in many institutions, then your first day may be different.