Divinity personified!

Shri Shailendra Kumar Budhalakoti, a great man and also the General Manager of the Northern Railway retired from active service yesterday. He has been a man par excellence and a man much superior to any position that the system can device.

Mr Budhalakoti is perhaps the only human being that I have come across in my life who is as close to divinity as a human being can be. A pure soul, purer than that of a child and this is what divinity is all about.

For the first time in my career I witnessed a spate of farewells that had a massive outpouring of love and emotion and each and every one of the speakers spoke straight from the heart with a lump in the throat. And these were also perhaps the first farewells that were devoid of sycophantic connotations when a boss is poised to move upwards or utter disdain when a boss is about to move into oblivion.

Mr Budhalakoti has touched the lives of each one of us who have worked with him. Working with him has taught us the meaning of life itself. There is so much to learn from a great human being like him and every meeting with him has been a pleasure and a great learning experience.

The last two years of my career have perhaps been the finest, as I had the opportunity of closely working with Mr Shailendra Kumar Budhalakoti, a wonderful human being who places human values over everything else and has that one quality that is very rare amongst bureaucrats and that is Humility. My only regret is that I did not work with him earlier.

Most of the officers are feared, few are respected, but only rarest of the rare are loved and Mr Budhalakoti belongs to that category.

With a beaming smile on his face Mr Budhalakoti exudes positivity and radiance and a meeting with him gives encouragement and hope.

His management style is unusual for a railway officer. He commands respect and creates an environment where people are able to work and live without prejudice and fear and in the process creates a recipe for sure shot success, a success that he promptly attributes to his team.

Mr Budhalakoti shall be missed, missed like none else has ever been. Yet he is one boss who shall always be a part of our personal lives. He gives hope that all is not lost yet and it is still good to be good and bad to be bad and the society despite its apparent distortions is still eager to place on high pedestals such divine personalities.

The fragrance of his association shall forever live in the corridors of the Baroda House.