HEROES FROM NORTH EAST INDIA………2

WORKING LIKE A WELL OILED MACHINE

Meet the Club car driver Abu Sharef (31) from Assam. Yet  another hero from the North East India. He is deputed at Front Office of The Vivanta by Taj at Bekal in Kerala. Come Dec 2014, he will be completing four years of service in this hotel.

Taking the guests to their rooms in his Club car, luggage assistance and duty at the main gate.... He is ready to collaborate with a smiling face; by working like a well oiled machine, he has been able to send 70 per cent of his earnings to his family members living in Assam.

He had travelled to his home in Assam, three times since 2010. "Oh, the train journey to my home is a nightmare. Three days and three nights you will have to spend in the train. What to do? I have no other choice". His father is a small time cloth businessman; mother a housewife; of the two brothers, one is working the other is studying. Abu who got married to Najbin Behum two years back is very proud of his wife who is very supportive and understanding; by profession she is a Nurse in Assam. She also contributes in a small way by being part and parcel of the family.

Abu can speak very well in Hindi, Bengali and Assamese. "I can understand everything a guest coveys in English. But, I wouldn't be able to speak in English with similar fluency".

"Ever since I joined Taj at Bekal" admits Abu, "I have been learning from every service lapse. The Front Office staff members are very friendly with me. I am very happy here. I feel really valued. Never in my life, I thought that I will be part of a Five Star hotel.

"In Assam, we do not eat coconut. In my early days in Bekal, I found it difficult to get acquainted with the Kerala cuisine, which has the presence of coconut in a big way. Nowadays, I like the Kerala food; our staff cafeteria provides good food"

 

Hardworking Abu spends more time in hotel; focuses on service delivery; ensures that he can dazzle and delight the Taj guests to the hilt; for him, his hotel itself is his mosque.

Thanks to Nazir, the Security Supervisor, in Vivanta by Taj,Bekal who has been instrumental in bringing Abu from Assam to Bekal. But for Nazir's intervention, Abu would have been working as a salesman in Assam.

Assam's loss has been Taj's gain. Undoubtedly.

R Kesava Mallia in Bekal, Kerala