'I will never forget ...my former boss'

Sansare Dattaram Rajaram can never forget that day. It was the year 1979. As an auditor, he had just recently joined Pansell Kerr Foster, a company based in Dubai and had been asked to go to Abu Dhabi on an audit assignment.

This particular assignment meant spending a few days in Abu Dhabi.

One morning, he was awakened by a phone call. It was from an accountant in his client's company.

"He told me that he had received news from my office in Dubai that my mother [who had been ailing for some time in India] had passed away."

"I was devastated,'' he says. "I could not control my grief and broke down.''

It took him a while to pull himself together, after which he telephoned his secretary and told him that he would be going to India by the first available flight.

"I packed my bag, made arrangements to hand over charge to another accountant and began to prepare for my trip back home.'' Rajaram's client was arranging a vehicle to take him to Dubai.

So bad was his state of mind that he was in no position to arrange his transportation back to Dubai and he was fortunate that his client was kind enough to do so.

As he was packing his bags, Rajaram was beset by worries. Would he be able to get a ticket at such short notice? Would he be able to reach home in time to attend the ceremonies ...?

"You see at that time there was no online booking and so one had to personally visit an airline office and book the ticket. All this meant a lot of delay."

As he was leaving his temporary accommodation in Abu Dhabi, he saw a familiar face getting out of
a car.

"It took my fuddled brain a minute to realise that it was my boss Mr Rafik. The moment I saw him I broke down and sobbed uncontrollably.

"Mr Rafik just hugged me and kept consoling me. He told me not to worry about my belongings and said that he would personally drive me to the airport.

He also said, 'As for your flight ticket, do not worry, it will be ready by the time you get to Dubai.'

"I did not know how to thank him,'' says Rajaram, who is today assistant manager in the company.

"I had heard many stories about how kind-hearted and generous he was.

I could not believe that this man, who perhaps is one of the busiest men I have ever seen, actually drove all the way from Dubai to Abu Dhabi to be there for me in a time of crisis.

"To me, that gesture was a sterling example of his greatness as a human being.''

Having survived the ordeal of losing his mother, Rajaram returned to Dubai and carried on working for his kind-hearted boss. He was indeed a fortunate man to be working with such a great boss.

"He had great respect for everybody and did not consider any job below his dignity.

"A very family-oriented person, he would often ask his employees about their welfare, or whether they were happy with their salaries. We received salary increases and bonuses regularly and our company had a very low turnover rate of employees.

"For many, Mr Rafik was more than a boss; he was almost like a brother. Though he had close to 100 staff working for him, he knew everyone's name, their family conditions ... He was always there when you needed a helping hand."

And so it was the years passed by and Rajaram was once again woken up in the wee hours of the morning on May 20 last year.

"A colleague called me up to inform me that Mr Rafik had passed away in the US following a heart attack. He was just 60."

"It was only when the condolences began to pour in that I came to know that apart from being a great human being, he was also
a very compassionate man as he used to donate generously to various charities.

"I feel truly privileged to have worked for such an individual for nearly 32 years."