Page 159 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

45. Meeting our seniors preparing to

leave

I t was month of October. To our surprise, the air conditioners were

fully switched on. We were not wearing woolens and felt a lot of
chill. Our colleagues there advised us to always keep a woolen
jacket at the branch in our cabin and wear it while in the building.
In India, we were not used to low temperatures like 18 -20°C maintained
in Hong Kong by the Chinese staff who were in majority at the branch.
The Expatriate Managers whom we had to replace were preparing to
leave for India as their tenure of overseas posting had ended and we had
joined.

They were on a shopping spree and were taking home all kinds of
consumer durables and electronic items, most favorite items being
Branded Music System (Sony or Panasonic), Video Camera, A Pair of
Binoculars, Camera with good extra Zoom Lens, Video Cassette Recorder
with Dozens of Blank Cassettes, Sony Walkman, Microwave Oven,
Dishwasher, Fully Automatic Washing Machine, Refrigerator and a Deep
Freezer to chill beer or anything else.

These items were not available in India in those days and had to be
imported. The cost of such goods in India was about 80-100% more.
People were crazy for carrying such electronic goods. More particularly,
items like VCRs, Cameras, TVs being handy to carry by air, were a must
carry by Indian tourists traveling abroad while returning to India. Many
traders in India used to engage carriers who were paid air fare and a
couple of nights free in some cheap guest house in Hong Kong for carrying
light weight electronic items way back home. Those items would recover
the cost with allied expenses and still leave a good margin for the

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