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UNIFORM ALTERATION SPECIALIST OF OBEROI GRAND

                              

Meet Ajay Pradhan (41) the Odisha born tailor, popularly known as "Master" in The Oberoi Grand, Kolkata. Many hotel employees working with him are not to know that he has completed ten years with the hotel being an "alteration Specialist".

Uniform room is his workplace. And, altering the uniforms as per the needs of the employees is his main job. The Oberoi Grand Kolkata has a different challenge unlike other hotels. The annual trainee turnover or movement is very high. Every year in the month of June as many as 70 to 80 fresh Operational Trainees will hit the shop floor. Whenever the hotel orchestrates big functions for its guests, the banquet casual trainees will line up in front of Ajay Pradhan for their uniforms. Quick footed Ajay Pradhan, with a cool mind will handle everyone in his own style.

This is with regard to the employees. The regular guests of the hotel know him very well; they also will bank on him for alteration. I am one of them. Sample this: on 27 Oct 2014, I had a trouser with me, which needed alteration. I beckoned Ajay and handed over the same to him thinking that he will return the same in a day, perhaps. He surprised me by altering the same in less than half an hour's time. Last year, I had requested him whether he could provide the CD covers in cloth. I had a sample cloth cover with me. In no time, he turned up with two such CD cloth covers...elegant ones. This is how he dazzles and delights the guests of The Oberoi Grand.

Ajay had joined The Oberoi Grand Kolkata in Jan 2005. He lives in Kolkata with his wife Pratima and daughter Prateeksha. Travels by bus to the hotel. It takes 45 to 60 minutes on an average to reach the hotel from his home. Wednesday is his weekly off day.

His jute mill employee turned farmer father, homemaker mother and two brothers live in Odisha.

Providence took him to the tailor shop near his home in Odisha when he was a student. He used to sit in the shop and watch what the tailors are doing. One day his uncle advised him to choose the profession of a tailor. He was just 17 at that time. Ajay could acquire skills in tailoring quickly, he later landed Sholapur, near Mumbai, then moved to Hyderabad; in both places, he worked as a tailor. In Surat, he opened a tailoring shop on his own. His next stop was The Oberoi Grand, Kolkata.

One good quality in him is this: he never consults his watch, when he is at work.

"If urgent work comes, I will finish the same at the earliest, then only I will sign off" says Ajay Pradhan.

TEXT & PICS BY R KESAVA MALLIA IN KOLKATA