Today marks 4 years since my father passed away due to Covid. Life has changed many times over in that period, but I still miss my morning call with him. They say you truly die when your name is said out loud for the last time, so I try and make sure I say his name once every few days - Sanjoy Roy.
My father was my best friend, the older I’ve become, I’ve come to appreciate how rare that kind of dynamic is and how lucky I got. Every year I try to write down a fond memory (Fortunately I have many)
This story always makes me feel warm and fuzzy because it was one of the happiest moments in Baba’s life.
At the beginning of my career, he and I worked for the same company (Again very rare in a non-business setup) I had recently got promoted to a Branch Manager role, my first time leading a team and a P/L. I had a rocky start to the role but quickly found my feet. Everything I did , came with the added pressure of being watched as Sanjoy Roy’s son. Everyone was waiting for the nepotism hire to crash and burn after all. I still remember that period as a super stressful but amazing learning time.
The regional manager announced a competition to motivate the branch managers. It was a quarter-long sprint to grow revenue the most. It had a couple more rules but they don’t matter for now. The winner would win a cash bonus AND they would have lunch with the VP of sales AKA Sanjoy Roy. I couldn’t care less about the bonus, I wanted to win that lunch. The day the competition was announced, at dinner I told Baba “I’m going to win this and shake your hand in front of everyone.” In classic Baba fashion, he said, “Nothing would make me happier.”
The grind began, I don’t think I stopped thinking about work and closing deals. All I could think about was the daily revenue dashboard and beating everyone else. Just winning isn’t enough, I needed to dominate the competition. For the first 2 months, it was neck & neck with another branch manager, until it wasn’t. He was firing on all cylinders but he was starting to tire out. No one wanted this more than I did. In my mind, I could see myself walking up to Baba and shaking his hand. In the third month, the gap widened until it got to a point where it was clear 15 days before the competition ended who was the winner.
Pan to the conference room where all the branch managers had assembled, including all the big bosses (Including Baba) The regional manager announced the winner. “Shomik Roy!” I walked up to shake Baba’s hand. He was beaming ear to ear, I couldn’t stop smiling. Everyone was applauding, everyone in the room recognized that this was a special father-son moment. It was a rare moment where Baba dropped the in-office professionalism to give me a hug in office. (We hugged a lot just never in the workplace)
He wouldn’t stop talking about it to his friends and our family. I had shown the entire company that I wasn’t just his son but an adept professional who deserved to be there. We never did have that official lunch, but that’s okay. We didn’t need to.
On a day like today, thinking about that walk up to shake his hand makes me smile. The grief will never go away but I sure am lucky to have so many happy memories to think about.
I love you Baba, you are missed every single day. I wish we had more time.