It was in Jan/Feb surely before March 2001 when a retired Subra was looking at what to do…when I got this phone call…saying “Do you want to do training?”

It was my friend Sagar Shah – who was very close to me…and I said “Maybe”….

He said ‘We have to go to Andheri’. That sealed it, I said ‘OMG, no….’ I used to stay in Ghatkopar and going to Andheri was like being sentenced to RI…so did not go. He called me again after a couple of days and said “I met one Ms. Uma Shashikant….who is heading this initiative and it looks good..I met her in Vashi…you should go to Andheri.

So off I went to Andheri without much expectations…and I met Uma. Like magic I said yes…and the best thing that happened to me in the Training profession was meeting Uma. And I am not saying this just because she reads this blog!! 14 years after the first meeting, my respect for her has only grown. Thanks Uma. Of course I must thank IIEF – then a team with Gautam Bharadwaj (a brilliant research/consultancy guy with an idea a minute), Priya Shaikh, the very mature kid Pooja Jaisingh, and God’s gift to mankind Poonam. Jobin was the co-ordinating force…

On 1st April wrote the ‘Amfi’ exam of Mutual Funds…(i wrote it again on 29th April 2015 a much watered downed exam)…and my training career took off. I have not kept meticulous records like Amit Trivedi so I will not be able to tell you that I have done “x” number of trainings…but a good intelligent guess is I have done between 1050 to 1200 days of training. My smallest class had ONE student, and my biggest class would have had about 200 students. I spoke to IFA Galaxy…last year…and it had 500 people, but I do not really classify that as a training, it was a pep talk asking the IFAs to ask the difficult questions.

Who have been my real big clients? Hdfc, Standard Chartered bank, Franklin Templeton Amc, Icici Kotak, Iris Business Services, …..I must have done upwards of 100 trainings for Hdfc, StanC,…

Which parts of the country have I done training?  Literally Srinagar, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Shimla, Delhi, Lucknow, Kanpur, Patna, Gauhati, Itanagar got cancelled (!!), Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Indore, Pune, Ranchi, Kolkatta, Goa, Mumbai, Raipur, Kolkatta, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Trivandrum.

I just tried to make sure that all the states got covered – I have of course tons of training in Coimbatore, Pune, Surat,  to the east of Bhubaneshwar in Puri, Cochin, …so literally tons of flying miles and some train / road miles when I did training in Kota, Patiala, Bilaspur, Muaffarpur, …….literally the whole country.

There are just too many people whom I have to thank for the start and continuation of the journey…

It is for the first time that I have started doing (trying to do) some training on a paid basis for the END USER OF THE financial products spectrum…though it was successful in Mumbai…the travel and stay costs in other Indian cities make it look like a difficult proposition. Sure if there are 40 people attending and paying Rs. 2000 per head, the logistics will work out..but it is still an experiment.

I have deliberately not included the corporate training that I have done…and the open training that I have done in “Finance for non Finance People” – would have done about 100 days of that training also…..

I have enjoyed the journey, and continue to enjoy the journey. I would have stopped the day I stopped enjoying what I am (was) doing. After all I did give up brokerage (face it it is far, far, far more paying than training can ever be) …

Fun situations? Telling people that “Engaging me will ACTUALLY REDUCE YOUR SALES…because Mis-selling will reduce” , and helping a head of training understand that just getting access to my slides is not enough.

Bad situations: In Korba I was having dinner when a bunch of lathi wielding men came to ‘visit’ me because they thought I was from Icici bank trying to recover their credit card dues. Skipped a beat, but heart did not palpitate too much.

Crazy answers: “Which other areas do you need training In” got an answer: “Chandigarh”. Question was asked in Delhi.

Unbelievable situation (obviously in a psu bank): “Subra please do not circulate the attendance sheet..call for attendance ..and mark it yourself..people may do proxy to claim TA and DA.

Unbelievable situation (Ahmedabad): One man who had come in an old scooter and he built courage over 2 days to ask me a question about asset allocation. His question was “Is my asset allocation correct SIR…it is 50:50 in debt and equity”. Having lived with Gujjus and seen Punjus I knew I should not estimate his net worth on how he looks. So I asked him how much is your N>W….he said 16…i asked oh Rs.16 lakhs….he said no sir Rs. 16 crores. I guess amongst all my attendees he must have been the richest EVER. THIS WAS IN 2004-6….NOW HIS NW must be ….!!! (no clue).

A complete by product of training and meeting so many people has been my writing now reflects a greater plurality of thought, language, and hopefully style.

Let me say Michhami Dukkadam to all those people whom I have hurt in this process and end by saying Dayenu to God.

I richly got what I deserved. Maybe more.

Enjoying life…hope to drop dead in a training class, on the saddle of a bike, or in my running shoes. Pray to God for that.

Thanks to about 30,000 students…who must have suffered me through one full day…of training.

Thanks to the many many trainers, managers, CEOs, corporate communication guys…..who engage me….

THANKS…