I joined the State Bank of India as a Probationary Officer in 1982. My stint at SBI Bhind branch always floods me back with memories and one of them is Katare my Chief Manager. His full name is Ram Vilas Katare. Katare had a very unusual character and I am yet to see such an utterly bold man in my life. He is ready to defy anyone or anything if he wants to without a second thought about whoever they are. He is from Morena, the neighbouring district of Bhind and a part of Chambal and therefore had the same fearless character of many of the people from Chambal valley.
When I joined Bhind branch in 1991 as Manager (Personal Banking Division) , Mr T.C.Jain was the Chief Manager, after about 2 years, probably in 1993 Katare came in as Chief Manager of the Branch. Now Katare was a Trainee Officer (promoted from clerical cadre but through merit by taking a special exam) of 1979 batch which makes him 3 years senior to me. I knew Katare earlier itself, as I took over the advances desk from him at the Deputy General Managers Secretariat at Gwalior Zonal Office. I was friendly with him and therefore could never call him Sir despite him becoming my Chief Manager.
The Chief Manager before Katare, T.C. Jain (he too was a Trainee Officer) was a horrible character and made a mess of the branch. Now, since I happened to be the Manager of the Division under him, I had to suffer the consequences. After him came Katare and they are personalities in contrast. The first one, very inward and cunning, and Katare very outward and straight as an arrow.
Katare is a Brahmin and he did not touch non veg or liquor at all. He is a handsome guy. I was 38 years old in 1993 and Katare must be about 4-5 years older to me and no more. So that makes him 42-43 years old then.
Katare is meticulous on dress. He always wore a coat and a tie and came to the branch on a car. In a shocking contrast on some days he used to come to the branch in Dhoti and Kurta riding a bicycle. The first time when I saw that I was just stunned, but then, with Katare you just get used to such stuff.
The word coat brings back one remembrance about him. One day when I came to the bank, I just went to say hello to him. And there he was sitting in a lovely navy blue coat with flashing gold buttons. The coat was very impressive and I said as much to Katare.
He said thanks and then he laughed and told me that he has not bought it and Yadav (that guy had a Distillery at Bhind and had a working capital limit with us) and Katare went to inspect his stocks at Delhi and were just roaming around in Connaught Place.
Katare, then saw a readymade garments store and went in to have a look. Yadav accompanied him. As he was searching through the coats, he found this very impressive coat, liked it and mentioned that to Yadav. Yadav said “Buy it Sir” but Katare said that was too expensive for him, and Yadav said “Sir, I will pay and you can give me back the money anytime you want”. So Yadav bought that coat for him. He told me that cost Yadav Rs 2700 and that was 1994 which means it would be easily equal to some Rs 10,000 today.
As I said earlier if Katare did something he does not hide it as he is simply fearless about anyone or anything. He had the guts to tell me that a customer bought that coat for him and it is not bought with his own money. He is very open and never concealed anything.
His temper is volatile and he does not care a damn as to who his adversary is. If he wants to give it, he would give it to anybody including the Chairman of SBI itself.
Then SBI Bhopal circle had about 500 branches and was headed by a Chief General Manager. It then had 4 Zonal Offices at Bhopal, Raipur, Jabalpur and Gwalior each headed by a Deputy General Manager. So each DGM had about 125 branches under him. In turn each DGM had 3-4 Regional Managers under him.
Bhind was classified as one of the 32 critical branches of the Circle and once an interaction of the DGM’s of the 4 Zones, Regional Managers and Critical Branch BM’s was held at Local Head Office, Bhopal by the Chief General Manager. Now, for the circle a CGM is like an uncrowned king at that time. Even the DGM’s talked in hushed tones before the CGM.
The interaction was going on and at one point the CGM started talking about Bhind branch. There was some fall in its performance parameters in the previous year and the CGM commented on it. To that the only reply a Chief Manager of the branch could have given is that he would do his best to improve the position. But Katare is not a guy who does such things.
The guy who said that was the CGM and no less, but that did not matter to Katare at all. He just got up in the seminar and flatly told the CGM that there is absolutely nothing wrong with that branch and such and such circumstances have brought down the performance. Then he invited the CGM to come to the branch and personally inspect the position. Then he went on speaking further.
Now his RM and DGM must have been terrified at the way Katare was going about it with the CGM and the DGM Gwalior Zonal Office told Katare, please sit down we can talk about it later. But Katare was unrelenting and finally the RM then somehow managed to make Katare sit down. That is how fearless Katare is, he just goes ahead and does or speaks what he wants and to him it does not matter to whom he is talking to. Even if that is the PM, Katare’s attitude would be the same. He is prepared to take the consequences of his actions.
One day the Regional Manager of the region which controlled Bhind branch was having a seminar on Statutory Audit at the time of annual closing in March. All the BM's under his region as well as the Managers of Divisions in the branches attended the seminar.
The seminar was held at a hotel in Gwalior. After the seminar was over the RM (Vithal Ganesh Rabade) who himself was a Trainee Officer and was the Guru of Katare was conducting the seminar.
After completion of Statutory Audit issues he started questioning about issues from individual branches. On the way he questioned Katare about something pending with the Bhind branch for submission to the Regional office.
Now we do not know what mood Katare was in. He just stood up and said,
“Sir you first tell me what happened to my TA Bill which was sent to your office for passing 15 days ago? “
Rabade was taken aback. Moreover in front of all the BM’s & Manager of Divisions in a Region headed by him it was an insult. But Rabade was not a guy who got excited easily. So he kept his cool and said to Katare that he should answer Rabade first and then he is ready to answer to Katare’s question. But Katare did not agree, he said why Rabade cannot answer him first? Katare got so excited that he had to be taken out of the Seminar hall by the other BM’s before the seminar could continue. That day I did not attend the Seminar and this incident was narrated to me by Hemraj, Manager of the Agriculture Division who went with him.
Next day when I went to the branch, Katare called me and showed me the letter which the Regional Office has sent him. The letter mentioned that on some issue Katare had to be physically taken out of the Seminar hall before the seminar could commence and sought his explanation. He told me “These bastards think they are very smart; What the hell do I care? I would resign from the Bank”. However, later that issue was settled and Katare remained in the Bank.
He was not bothered about the office bearers of the Officers Association either. In the Bank the Officers association is powerful and the clerical one even more so. One day the AIBOC (All India Bank Officers Congress) which represents all the officers of SBI had given a call for a strike on some issue. Katare said nothing doing and said he would not go on strike and he wanted to work on the strike day.
In the SBI the Head Cashier was always an officer and held one of the keys of the strong room, while the accountant or another officer held the second key. Unless both the keys are operated on, the safe would not open. In SBI, under no circumstances can both the keys be handed over to the same person. In order for working on that day Katare took one key, and got the other key delivered to Hemraj, Manager (Agriculture Division) after somehow coaxing him not to go on strike. On the day of the strike when all the bank branches of SBI all over the country went on strike, Katare opened the branch and conducted some 50 transactions against the directive of the AIBOC. Such is Katare.
Later, in another incident took place. M.P.Jain is a dada and was the President of the Officers Association of the Gwalior Zonal Office. Now, Katare was earlier his Sishya. During one year’s Officers Association elections MP Jain came with his panel of 6 members to campaign at the branch. As is customary, he met Katare and sought his permission for campaigning in the branch. By then one Bhawnani has become the Manager of the Agriculture Division in place of Hemraj.
The panel met all the officers in the branch and finally went to Bhawnani’s cabin which is upstairs and were sitting with him. Bhawnani ordered cold drinks for them. MP Jain then committed a protocol blunder probably considering that Katare is still his Sishya. He sent a message to Katare through a branch messenger to come and have cold drinks with him.
Now Bhawnani did not go along well with Katare because their personalities were utterly different, Katare the plain and open guy while Bhawnani was a typical Sindhi who is cunning. That act of MP Jain was nothing short of an insult to Katare and he does not take such insults lying down. He asked the messenger to tell MP Jain that he would not come.
My cabin was located directly at the back of Katare’s and on that day I heard loud voices in his cabin and I immediately rushed there to see what the matter was. I found that Katare lifted his hand and was about to beat MP Jain. Bhawnani in desperation was hanging on to him and stopped him with great difficulty from doing so. If his blow landed obviously MP Jains panel of 6 guys would not have kept quiet and we from the Branch would have to intervene and it would have been a total mess.
Here is another incident to show Katare’s carefree nature. SBI was conducting the CAIIB (Exam of the Indian Institute of Bankers) every year at Bhind, and for assistance in the Exam two lady lecturers from the Government College came for invigilation and Katare grew friendly with them.
Both the ladies are PhD’s, one in science and the other in English. One was Adarsh Mishra and the other Komal Kushwaha. The former was a Brahmin and the latter a Rajput. Both were married as well. If the relationship stopped as just friends there would not have been any problem but it grew much deeper and the two ladies (who were close friends to each other) used to come to the Branch and were sitting in his cabin for hour’s together chit chatting with him. This made the tongues of the staff wag in the branch but Katare just did not care and things went on like that. Later I was transferred from the branch but came to know that the ladies who were once close friends had a fight between them because of Katare and stopped talking to each other.
So, that is Katare for you, uncompromising on anything and goes his own way and defies everyone including the society. He is utterly fearless and backs down at nothing. But later after I was transferred, the most surprising development was that Katare opted for VRS from the Bank and set up his own industry at Gwalior, something related to Rubber and he exported its product. He succeeded in his venture very well and he has now settled down at Vadodara where he has set up another Branch. He had 2 daughters both of whom married Thakurs.
Now with his type of temperament how he succeeded in the industry I do not know, but he took VRS, did very well for himself and became a successful industrialist. I think that was an amazing transition. In the industry one has to make so many compromises with Government officials. It makes me wonder how he managed that. With his flaring temperament that was never defensive, being a businessman is almost impossible. And Katare is a guy who never changes and plays by his own rules, so to me it appears like a miracle.
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